CONTENTS 



Economics ^ 3 



Sugar maples 4 



The sugar grove 4 



Sap yields 6 



Summary 8 



Tapping the tree 8 



Date of tapping 9 



Selecting trees 9 



Boring tapholes 9 



Life of a taphole 11 



Sanitizing tapholes 12 



Summary 14 



Spouts and buckets 14 



Sap spouts 14 



Rainguards 16 



Sap buckets and bags 16 



Summary 18 



Collecting the sap 18 



Collecting tanks 19 



PipeHnes 20 



Summary 22 



Plastic tubing 23 



Installing tubing 24 



Taking down tubing 28 



Washing and sanitizing tubing 29 



Reinstalling tubing 33 



Summary 34 



Vacuum systems 35 



Storage tanks 35 



Summary 37 



Evaporator house on the sap-producing farm 37 



Location 37 



Function 38 



Requirements 38 



Design 38 



Steam ventilation 38 



Location of evaporator 41 



Air supply 42 



Sirup-processing room 42 



Fuel storage 42 



Summary 43 



The evaporator and its function 43 



Design of evaporator 44 



Changes in sap during its evaporation to sirup 44 



Evaporation time 45 



Liquid level in evaporator 46 



Rates of evaporation 47 



Rule of 86 48 



Summary 48 



Operating the evaporator , 49 



Starting the evaporator 49 



Drawing off the sirup 49 



Finishing pan 50 



Page 



Automatic drawoff 51 



End of an evaporation 52 



Cleaning the evaporator 53 



Summary 55 



Other types of evaporators 55 



Steam evaporator 55 



Vacuum evaporator 57 



Summary 57 



Fuel 58 



Wood 58 



Oil 58 



Summary 65 



Maple sirup 65 



Composition of sap and sirup 65 



Color and flavor 67 



Buddy sap and sirup 68 



Rules of sirupmaking 70 



Grades of sirup 70 



Summary 71 



Control of finished sirup 71 



Viscosity of maple sirup 71 



Effect of temperature on viscosity 72 



Old standards of finished sirup V2 



Use of precision instruments 72 



Elevation of boiling point 72 



Finishing pan 74 



Special thermometers 75 



Hydrometers 76 



Summary 78 



Clarification of sirup 78 



Sugar sand 78 



Sedimentation 79 



Filtration 79 



Summary 81 



Checking and adjusting density of sirup 82 



Weight method 82 



Refractometry method 82 



Hydrometry method 82 



Measuring density 85 



Measuring solids content 86 



Adjusting density 87 



Summary 88 



Grading sirup by color 89 



Color standards 89 



U.S. color comparator 89 



Summary 90 



Packaging 90 



Stack burn 91 



Control of micro-organisms 91 



Size and type of package 92 



Summary 92 



Standards for maple sirup for retail sale 93 



Summary 94 



m 



