J^EW ENGtAI^B FARMEK, 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



PUBLISHED BY GEORGE C. BARRETT, NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agricultural Warehouse.)-T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



VOL. XIII. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 17, 183.5. 



NO. 49. 



fFroni ihe New York Farmer.] 

 MAPIiE SrclR. 



The manufactiiie of sugar from tlie sap of tlio 

 maple tree is becoming a matter of consirlerable 

 importance. It is from year to year increasing ; 

 the value of this hcautiful and useful tree is more 

 liighly a| predated than fornierly ; and many in- 

 telligent farmers are forming considerable planta- 

 tions of it, as an important appendage to their es- 

 tablishtnents. Several families widiin my knou- 

 ledgc make more than enongli sugar and njolassis 

 for their domestic supply; some of them produc- 

 ing five hundred, some one thousand, and some as 

 much as fifteen hundred ) ounds per animm : and 

 in a sma'l rough, and mountainous town in my 

 vicinity, of a very sparse population, it is calcula- 

 ted that at least 20,000 lbs. are annually produced. 

 Tlie tree is of rapid growth, and of a "cleanly and 

 beautiful appearance. Indeed I do not know of 

 a handsomer variety ; and its plantation in long 

 avenues for the embellishments of the streets 

 and the road .sides is much prevailing in the beau- 

 tiful villages of the Connecticut valiVy, where it 

 finds a congenial soil, and grows with great luxu- 

 riance. Some of the sugar which I have seen 

 this season has been of the finest description, not 

 surpassed in color, clearness, and brilliancy, by 

 the very best cane sugar of New Orleans or Jamai- 

 ca ; and a good deal, I am told, has heretofore 

 been refined in New York, and sold for loaf sugar 

 of the first quality. Lorain justly remarks, that 

 it has one great advantage over sugar manufactur- 

 ed from the cane, and that is, " the certainty of its 

 proceeds not being contaminated with the great 

 and disgusting quantity of decaying anhiial 

 matters, necessarily mixed with the product of the 

 sugar cane. The latter is gathered when animal- 

 cula of every kind prevail : the former before they 

 predominate to any extent that would claiin 

 serious attention. 



I have utyself had little experience either in 

 the cultivation of the tree, or the manufacture of 

 the sugar ; but 1 have thought that the information 

 whicji 1 have gathered from those who are famil- 

 iar with the subject, would not be unacceptable to 

 the agricidtiiral public. 



The sugar, or rock maple, abounds in many parts 

 of the country. The sap from the white or soft 

 maple is not so strong as that from the rock majde 

 but is yielded in equal al)undance, and makes equal- 

 ly good sugar. The walnut tree yields a sweet saji, 

 but in very small quantities, and of a frothy na- 

 ture. Small particles of sugar are sometimes col- 

 lected from the ends of walnut sticks in the wood 

 pile, where the exuded sap has become dried in 



he sun. The black birch likewise yields sap in 

 ibimdance, but not sweet enough to be maiiufac- 

 ured into sugar. A single tree of black birch 

 las been known to yield a barrel of sap in a day. 

 Maple trees difilM- much in the quality of the 

 ap which they yield; some yielding much swect- 

 T sap than others. The cause of this is not 

 :nown, nor does it appear from any facts which 

 lave been observed, that it is coiinected with the 



soil in which the tree grows. Old trees are 

 thought to yield sweeter sap than young trees, and 

 trees which have been frequently tapjied yield a 

 sap of more sweetness than others which have 

 not. A barrel of sap, thirtythree and one third 

 gallons, will yield ordinarily frotn seven to nine 

 pounds of sugar. A sugar orchard of five hun- 

 dred trees is calculated to yield upon an average 

 one thousand pounds per year. Oftentimes much 

 mon^ than this. It is not unusal to find a tree 

 which ^^ ill fill three buckets with sap in a day — a 

 bucket holding about two gallons. A tree has 

 been shown me from which twentyseven jiounds 

 of good sugar have been made in one year, and I 

 have been credibly informed of two instances in 

 which thirty pounds have been produced in a 

 season. 



The weather most favorable for making sugar 

 is when it freezes by night and thaws by day. No 

 snj) can be obtained with advantage after the buds 

 begin to swell Sugar is sometimes made in the 

 autumn, but by no means with equal advantage as 

 in the si)ring. It is advisable to tap a tree on the 

 south side, because it is more likely to thaw there, 

 and the sap is obtained sooner in the morning, but 

 no diflcrence is perceived in the sweetness of the 

 sap from eitlier side. 



1 he best mode of tapping the trees, as I learn 

 from some practical men, who have been for 

 thirty years accustomed to the manufacture of 

 sugar, is with a narrow chLsel. An incision is 

 made in the tree, which is technically called a box. 

 This, if made with care, is not thought to injure 

 the tree. It will soon close, and after a year or 

 two the tree may be tapped again in the same 

 place. These individuals, to whom I refer, dis- 

 approve very much the tai)ping of trees by boring 

 with an auger three or four inches, as in examin- 

 ing such trees after they have been felled, it is 

 found that these deep borings never heal like the 

 incisions made with a chisel, nor do they yield any 

 more sa|). Trees, instead of being injured by be inn- 

 tapped, are supposed, if the operation is perform- 

 ed judiciously, to gain vigor and strength from it. 



In the manufacture of the sugar, cleanliness in 

 all the vessels for collecting the sap, and boiling 

 and refining it, is deemed of paramount impor- 

 tance. Troughs made of new and unseasoned 

 wood, ami any acidity or mouldiness in the buck- 

 ets used for collecting the sap, are almost certain 

 to injure the sugar. I?y some persons it has been 

 recommended, instead of wooden buckets for col- 

 lecting the sap, to use earthen vessels ; but these 

 would be of more difficult and unsafe transporta- 

 tion, and liable to be broken by the frost. 



I have received a pretty full account of the 

 manufacture of this article from a respected frierjd 

 who has been acquainted with the process in his 

 own practice for forty years, and 1 take the liberty 

 of subjoining his letter at large. 



Leverett, April 14,, 1835. 

 Sir — You wished me testate to you the process 

 of making majile sugar. No two persons take 

 exactlythe same method, yet all think they take 



the best. I will tell you the course which we 

 pursue. The sap tubs arc made thoroughly clean 

 by scouring with sand and water, and scalding 

 them as .soon as they are taken from the trees in 

 the -spring. They are housed until the next spring 

 and we scald them again before they are put to 

 the trees. It has been found impossible to make 

 good sugar unless the tubs are cleansed from an 

 acid and nnuld, which is taken from the sap the 

 preceding s|)ring ; otherwise the tubs wi'l beco«iie 

 black, and llie sugar will not grain. I tap my 

 trees with an inch and a quarter chisel ; we cut 

 into the wood of the tree about three quarters of 

 an inch, in a sloping direction, so that the box (as 

 we call it) will hold a spoonftil or more. We bore 

 so as to strike the lowest place in the box with 

 a three-eighths of an inch breast bit. Spout.s are 

 made and sharpened to suit with the bit. A man 

 who is used to it will box three hundred in a day; 

 another man will bore and set the spouts. Some 

 people tap their trees by boring into the trees with 

 a half or three quarters of an inch bit or auger ; 

 but I am persuaded that it hurts the tree much 

 more than the chisel. So far as the spout drives 

 into the wood we get no sap, and of course we 

 must bore into the tree three or four inches, which 

 will occa;jor^ it to rot at the heart. I liave known 

 a sugar maple to be blown down, which was 2 feet 

 or two feet and a half through, and which had 

 been tapped with a chisel for eighty or ninety 

 years, and for the last thirty years perhaps with 

 two boxes each year, which was very thrifty and 

 perfectly sound, excepting what had been cut 

 away with the chisel. This tree was probably 

 la|)ped first when about eight inches through, for 

 at that bigness we begin to tap our trees. 



I have thought the sugar maple was given to us 

 by a kind Providence to be used in the same way 

 and for tlie same purpose for which we use them, 

 for no other tree which I know, would bear cut- 

 ting so much and for such a length of time with- 

 out injuring its growth. I am speaking of trees 

 standing in open land. Trees standing in a forest 

 will not bear tapping so well. There need be 

 nothing said respecting gathering the sap; but 

 sjiecial care ought to be taken to cleanse the bar- 

 rels, especially those in which cider has been kept. 

 [Many of the most careful sugar makers keep 

 barrels expressly and exclusively 

 pose. H. C] 



To make good sugai-, much depends on the 

 boiling from the commencement to the end. We 

 boil our sugar chiefly in kettles, which hold aboi;t 

 a barrel, set in arches. The sap is apt in boiling 

 to rise and boil over, to prevent which we put into 

 it a small quantity of butter ; a piece as big as a 

 walnut i)Ut into it at several times will prevent its 

 boiling over a day. The boiliifg throws the syrup 

 upon the hot kettle above the syrup in drops which 

 immediately burn upon the kettle; and as the syrup 

 settles in the kettle by evaporation, this burnt 

 matter is continually gathering upon it. When 

 the kettle is filled again, this burnt matter is wash- 

 ed off, at least the color and taste of it, into the 



