386 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



JUNE ir, 1835 



kettle ) this gives the stigar a Haik color, hittei- 

 taste, and |irevents its graining well. The hest 

 way that I know of to prevent this hiirnt matter 

 hurting the sugar is to keep it off the kettle as much 

 as possible, which may he done in part by never 

 suffering the heat of the kettle to he raised to an 

 extreme while boiling, and by scouring the kettle 

 thoroughly once every day. Rnbhing the kettle 

 with a piece of brick or stone will make it bright 

 and clean. All color in maple sugar gets into it 

 after it is taken from the tree; the sap when it 

 comes from the tree is as colorless as pure water. 

 I have seen and tasted ma))le sugar, which was 

 dried to sugar by the sun ; it was white as snow 

 and very pleasant to the taste. I have never 

 thought that an artificial color added any thing to 

 the value, of butter cheese, or sugar. I am told 

 that the sheet iron pans, which are much use(.i at 

 present to boil down the sap in, are preferable to 

 kettles ; they boil faster, and it never burns upon 

 the pan. Of this I know nothing by experience. 

 We boil the sap down at the rate of about twenty 

 to one ; and it is tlien set in tubs to settle ; in 

 24 hours turn off what is clear. It may be 

 ke]jt several weeks if you choose without injury, 

 unless it be very warm weather, which will occa- 

 sion it to ferment. The dregs left in the tubs 

 may be cleansed in several Ways. They may be 

 mixed with common -sap from the tree and settled 

 again, or saloiratus may be used, or milk, or an 

 egg beat up, put into it and boiled ; the filth will 

 rise, and may be skimmed off', and so prevent any 

 material loss. The syrup ouglit to be boiled 

 down to settle once in twcntyfour hours, for the 

 less sap boiled at a time to sugar, tho bettor the 

 sugar will be ; one barrel of sap boiled to sugar 

 will be whiter and better than five barrels ; five 

 than ten ; and so on. 



The 0]ieration of boiling the syrup into sugar 

 is better learned by seeing it done than from 

 writing. I will, however, give you a sketch of 

 the way we proceed. VVc boil the syrup to sugar 

 in a brass kettle, being lighter and easier to handle 

 than iron. We boil about twentyfive or thirty 

 pounds at a time, in a coinmon five pail kettle. 

 The heat ought to be steady, without much blaze. 

 If it is intended for lump sugar, we boil it until it 

 will cleave quickly and easily from an axe, or some 

 smooth and hard substance that is cold. We turn 

 it into earthern pans, and stir it moderately until it 

 is thoroughly grained, thence into dishes or small- 

 er pans to cool. If for dry lively sugar, we boil 

 it until it will break and fly like rosin when stream- 

 ed into cold water or upon an axe. We then pour 

 it into large earthen pans, and .stir it moderately 

 until it is grained and stiff as dough ; after which 

 we put it into a larger vessel, such as a large tray 

 or bo-wl holding nearly two pails full, and stir it 

 powerfully, to prevent its having hard knobs in it, 

 until it is cold and lively. But the stirring of 

 maple sugar to make it good cannot be learned, 

 but by seeing it done, or by a long course of prac- 

 tice. If stirred too fast while graining, it tends 

 to make it fine grained and clammy ; if not stirred 

 enough, it will be knobby. 



If you can select any jiart of this letter, which 

 will be of any advantage to other.s, you are at lib- 

 erty to make such use of it as you please. 

 Yours, respectfully, 



RoswELL Field. 

 Rev. H. Colraan. 



The above communication is so intelligible, full 

 and practical, that I have deemed it best to furnish 



it entire to the public, with many thanks for this 

 obliging favor. In an interesting communication 

 furnished to the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society, 

 by Jonathan Slorris, of Washington county, Pa., 

 (Memoirs, vol. vi. p. 252,) he states " that the 

 sugar tree reaches the age of an hundred and 

 eighty years, yet seldom measures more than four 

 feet in diameter.. It may be tapped when it is 

 about two feet and a half in circumference ; and 

 if done properly, in the manner described, neither 

 the growth nor the duration of the tree will be 

 affected. 



" To plant out a sugar camp, or orchard, let the 

 trees be 33 feet apart, or 46 trees on an acre. 

 One acre thus planted will, in a good season, yield 

 130 pounds of sugar. I tapped 160 trees this 

 year, and although 1 lost as much saj) as would 

 have made 100 jjounds of sugar, I made at least 

 500 pounds. The farmer must not expect to de- 

 rive any benefit from the land beyond the sugar, 

 as the shade of the trees is very iiijiu-ious to grass 

 and ruinous to grain." 



Particular directions for the manufacture of this 

 article may be found likewise in Cooper's edition 

 of Wiliich's Domestic Encyclopaedia, art. Sugar, 

 and in Lorain's Husbandry, c. xii. 



The first part of the present season was not pro- 

 pitious ; a second and favorable opportunity oc- 

 curred, however, in April, of which many availed 

 themselves to their advantage. It is a valuable 

 luxury among other domestic agricultural comforts. 

 Many small farmers sell from 50 to 100 dollars 

 worth annually. It commands readily, in cakes, 

 from 10 to 124 cents per pound, and that which 

 is superior brings sixteen cents. The thick syrup 

 or maple molasses, as it is called, a delicious condi- 

 ment for )iuddings and other domestic uses, com- 

 mands readily one dollar a gallon. The manufac- 

 ture, though laborious, occurring at a season of 

 the year when other farming business is in a mea- 

 sure suspended, may be considered as so much 

 gain in the profitable ajiplication of labor. 



H. C. 

 Meahowhanks, May 5th, 1835. 



ON THE PKESERVATION OP POSTS, SILLS, &c. 



We have endeavored on several occasions, to 

 call the attention of our readers to the best means 

 of preserving posts, sills, and other timbers, from 

 decay. The easiest method is to fell the trees at 

 the right time — not of the moon, but of the year. 

 If this be done, the value of the wood will be 

 several times greater than if cut when the sap is 

 rising in the spring. This is a fact well worth 

 knowing and remembering; but it is not the only 

 fact connected with this business, that ought to be 

 known and remembered. In addition to the du- 

 rability added in this way, we may add at least as 

 much more by the judicious appliciation o{ salt or 

 lime and lor statements of their efficacy, we refer 

 to pages 80, 159, 145, and 167, of our last vol- 

 ume. 



These substances were applied to prevent the 

 fermentation ; but the former, common salt, has 

 also been used as a preventive against the dry 

 rot. This, which has ])roved so remarkably de- 

 structive to timbers employed in both civil and 

 naval architecture, is produced by several S])ecies 

 of fungi, belonging also to the different genera, 

 such as Merulius lachrymans and Ditiola radiccia ; 

 and though we have heard no comi>laint on this 

 subject in our own section of the country, we 

 presume that some extracts from a late article by 



William Patterson, an eminent merchant of 

 Baltimore, will be found interesting : 



" I knew of a fine vessel built for a Charleston 

 packet, with so much care, that she required no 

 caulking or repairs for four years, at the end of 

 that time, when she was carried into the dock to 

 be caulked, she was found to be so totally destroy- 

 ed by the dry rot, as to be unworthy of repair, and 

 was broken up. 



"The year before the breaking out of the late 

 war with Great Brhain, I commanced building a 

 fine vessel, and had her frame raised, her bends 

 and bottom planked, when I determined to pro- 

 ceed no further. I erected a shed over the vessel, 

 under which she remained ybwr ?/ear« before I con- 

 cluded to finish her. All possible care was taken 

 of her ; yet some of the large pieces of timber 

 were found defective, especially the transoms ; 

 timbers 18 inches square were found to be entirely 

 destroyed by the dry rot. It was owing to this 

 circumstance that I resorted to the plan of boring 

 the targe timbers and filling the holes with salt. 



"1 adopted the following plan with all the 

 vessels that I have built within a period of more 

 than sixty years. While building, when the 

 bends and bottom planks are on, and before delling 

 I have. caused three sets of stoppers to be placed 

 fore and aft between all the timbers, to keep the 

 salt in its place. The Jirst tier of stoppers are 

 placed at the floor heads ; the second immediately 

 below the lower deck beams ; and the third be- 

 tween decks, just above the air streak, common in 

 all double decked vessels. Air streaks are left 

 above the first and second tiers of stoppers, for 

 the purpose of adding more salt as the previous 

 supplies of that article settle or are dissolved. Just 

 before finishing the ceiling of the vessel, the salt is 

 filed in among all the timbers, from the lowest tier 

 of stoppers to the upper deck — taking care that 

 the salt in the upper tier is well rammed down ; if 

 loetled, so much the better. 



" In all my experience, I have never found a de- 

 fective timber in vessels thus prepared, and thus 

 taken care of; and I am jjersuaded tliat the dry rot 

 may be entirely prevented, by adopting the above 

 precautions. As a proof of the good effects of 

 the above mode, I will add, that I have two 

 vessels now running which are perfectly sound 

 and trustworthy ; one of them is thirtyone years 

 old, and the other twentyfive ; and the only repairs 

 that have been given to their hulls, were the re- 

 newal of the waist planks of both, and the quarter 

 deck of one of them. This was not owing to the 

 decay of the plank, but to the circumstance of its 

 being fastened with iron ; the corrosion of the 

 iron caused openings where it passed through the* 

 wood." — Genesee Farmer. 



The following act, to encourage the Reeling and 

 Throwing of Silk, was passed, at the last session of the' 

 Massachusetts Legislature. ^ 



Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre-, 

 sentalives, in General Court assembled, and by the 

 authority of the same, That any person who shall 

 reel or cause to be reeled, or throw or cause to be 

 thrown, in this Conmionwealth, from cocoons, 

 produced from silk worms raised in this Com- 

 monwealth, merchantable silk capable of being 

 manufactured into the various silk fabrics, -shall 

 receive in the manner hereinafter provided, fifty 

 cents f»r every pound of silk reeled or thrown as 

 aforesaid. 



Sect. 2. Be it further enacted. That any two 



