212 SUGAR. 



syrup is amply sufficient, and half as much will do very well. I now put my 

 syrup into another kettle, which has been made perfectly clean and liriyht, 

 when it is placed over a quick but solid fire, and soon rises, but is kept from 

 overflow!)!^ by being- ladled with a long dipper. When it is sufficiently reduced, 

 (I ascertain this by dropping it from the point of a knife, while hot, into one 

 inch of cold water if done, it will not immediately mix with the water, but 

 lies at the bottom in a round flat drop,) it is taken from the fire, and the foam- 

 ing allowed to subside. A thick white scum, which is useable, is removed, and 

 the sugar turned into a cask, placed on an inclined platform, and left undis- 

 turbed for six weeks or longer, when it should be tapped in the bottom and the 

 molasses drawn off. It will drain perfectly dry in a lew days. 



The sugar made in this manner is very nearly as white as lump sugar, and 

 beautifully grained. "We have always sold ours at the highest price of Musco- 

 vadoes ; and even when these sugars have sold at eighteen cents, ours found a 

 ready market at twenty. Two hands will sugar off 250 Ibs. in a day. From 

 the scum taken off in cleansing, I usually make, by diluting and recleansing, 

 one-sixth as much as I had at first, and of an equal quality. 



It is not of much consequence as regards the quality of the sugar, whether 

 care be taken to keep the sap clean or not. The points in which the greatest 

 error is committed, are, neglecting to use a flannel strainer, or to strain after 

 cleansing to have the sugar kettle properly cleaned and to remove the 

 white scum from the sugar. 



An important process of manufacturing maple sugar, which 

 produces a most beautiful article, is also thus described in a com- 

 munication by the gentleman who gained the first premium at 

 the State Fair at Eochester in 1843, to the Committee on Maple 

 Sugar of the JN"ew York State Agricultural Society. 



In the first place, I make my buckets, tubs, and kettles all perfectly clean. 

 I boil the sap in a potash kettle, set in an arch in such a manner that the edge 

 of the kettle is defended all around from the fire. I boil through the day, 

 taking care not to have anything in the kettle that will give color to the sap, 

 and to keep it well skimmed. At night I leave fire enough under the kettle to 

 boil the sap nearly or quite to syrup by the next morning. I then take it out 

 of the kettle, and strain it through a flannel cloth into a tub, if it is sweet 

 enough ; if not, I put it in a cauldron kettle, which 1 have hung on a pole in 

 such a manner that I can swing it on or off the fire at pleasure, and boil it till 

 it is sweet enough, and then strain it into the tub, and let it stand till the next 

 ni'H-ninr. I then take it and the syrup in the kottle, and put it altogether into 

 tin; cauldron, and sugar it off. I use, to clarify say 100 Ibs. of sugar, the whites 

 of five or six eggs well beaten, about one quart of new milk, and a spoonful of 

 sale.ratus, all well mixed with the syrup before it is scalding hot. I then make 

 a moderate fire directly under the cauldron, until the scum is all raised ; then 

 skim it off clean, taking care not to let it boil so as to rise in the kettle before 

 1 have done skimming it. I then sugar it off, leaving it so damp that it will 

 drain a little. I let it remain in the kettle until it is well granulated. I then 

 put it into boxes made smallest at the bottom, that will hold from fifty to 

 seventy Ibs., having a thin piece of board fitted in, two or three inches above 

 the bottom, which is bored full of small holes, to let the molasses drain through, 

 which I keep drawn off by a tap through the bottom. I put on the top of the 

 sugar, in the box, a clean damp cloth ; and over that, a board, well fitted in, so 

 as to exclude the air from the sugar. After it has done draining, or nearly so, 

 I dissolve it, and sugar it off again ; going through with the same process in 

 clarifying and draining as before. 



The following remarks from Dr. Jackson, of Boston, may be of iu_ 

 1 <T. st to the sections of the country where maple sugar is made : 



The northern parts of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York, 

 hj&ve dense forests of the sugar maple, and at present only very rude processes 

 :iiv iM:idi- use of in preparing the sugar for market, so that it is too generally 



