1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



45 



For the Neio England Farmer. 



MAPLE SnGAH MAKHNTG— HOW TO 

 CONSTilUCT AW ARCH. 



Mr. Editor : — As it may possibly interest 

 some of your readers, I will, with your permis- 

 sion, give a description of the sugar-arch of Mr. 

 Wm. E. Toby, of this town. 



It is built of the right length and breadth for 

 the pans to the height of about two feet ; the back 

 end is built plain, the same as the sides, the 

 chimney being upon the left hand front corner ; 

 then through the middle of the arch lengthwise is 

 laid a tier of brick as high as the sides, and ex- 

 tending fi'om the front end to within one foot and 

 a half of the back end, the left hand half of the 

 front end being bricked up. In the half of the 

 arch next the chimney, stones are laid so as to 

 throw the blaze against the bottom of the pans as 

 much as possible. 



Now I think every one must see wherein lies 

 the peculiar excellence of this arch. It is the sav- 

 ing of wood, which is getting to be a very desirable 

 object in most sections. It takes less wood to 

 boil the same amount of sap, because the heat, 

 instead of going directly into the chimney and 

 perhaps blazing from the top, as I have seen it in 

 chimneys of good height, is obliged to travel back 

 under the pan, consequently but little of it gets 

 into the chimney. 



It would perhaps be well to place the division 

 wall nearer the side upon which the chimney is, 

 so as to allow the introduction of larger wood. 

 I recollect seeing in the Farmer, some two or 

 three years ago, some hints on sugar-making, and 

 among other things the writer advised the use of 

 the old-fashioned tubs, larger at the bottom, 

 upon the plea that they excluded many leaves, 

 pieces of bark, Sec, from the sap. Now as you 

 value your future happiness, do not follow the 

 suggestion. I will admit that they exclude a few 

 (and only a few) leaves, but what unhandy things 

 to have around, when you come to stow them 

 away; if you have a large sugar-place, you must 

 necessarily do as the boy said his folks did with 

 their hay, "stack what you can out-doors, and put 

 the rest in the barn." 



One thing more. If you can conveniently have 

 your sap-holder higher than the top of the arch, 

 buy a few feet of gas pipe, pass it through the 

 chimney, making a coil or two inside ; connect 

 one end of it with the holder, which can be done 

 with lead pipe, bring the other end of it over the 

 pan and put a stop-cock upon it to regulate the 

 flow of sap. Then the sap comes into the pan al- 

 ready warmed, and does not check the boiling as 

 when a bucket full of cold sap is poured in. 



Finally, build your arch after the above plan, 

 have good wood, and my word for it, you will see 

 the sugar "coming into a charming brownness," 

 and not so very brown either, if you will only 

 strain your sap and keep all milk, eggs, saleratus, 

 &c., out of it. James Toby. 



Calais, VL, Nov. 26, 1860. 



Deer Forest. — The largest modern deer for- 

 est is that of the Duke of Athol, which, accord- 

 ing to his evidence in the late case of the Earl of 

 Wemyss against Campbell of Monzie, extends to 

 400,000 acres. The next is the forest of Far- 



quhason of Invercauld, but which is partly under 

 sheep and partly under deer, altogether about 

 130,000 Scotch acres. Next to which ranks Lord 

 Fife's forest, of Mar, about 60,000 acres. There 

 are a number of other deer forests of much small- 

 er extent, but the extent is not much increased of 

 late years ; and by comparison it will be found 

 that the extent of ground under deer is now much 

 less than it was a hundred years ago. — Perthshire 

 Courier. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 THE LONG ISLAND LANDS. 

 WHAT JOHN JOHNSTON THINKS OF THEM. 

 LETTER FROM JUDGE FRENCH. 



Mr. Brown: — I published my own opinion, 

 to some extent, of the Long Island lands, last 

 spring. That there should be a wilderness of vast 

 extent, with a railroad through the heart of it, 

 within two hours' ride of the city of New York, 

 the best market in all the North, is a fact so 

 strange that many conclude from it at once, that 

 the land is worthless. With a climate far milder 

 than New England, and from its island position, 

 not subject to our severe droughts, the soil must 

 be poor indeed, it would seem, to keep the land in 

 want of purchasers at $20 per acre. Those lands 

 are covered with a low growth of scrub-oaks which 

 renders the first breaking up difficult, and the fu'st 

 impression forbidding ; but there are no stones, 

 and no large stumps and no abrupt hills, and 

 there is very little broken land. After the first 

 plowing, a span of horses may do any work upon 

 these lands that is required. 



There is no great obstacle in the way of break- 

 ing up, but the question is, is the land valuable 

 when it is cleared ? I have not my former letters 

 at hand, but I recollect well my impression as I 

 passed over these lands, whether I have expressed 

 it before or not, that they are eminently adapted 

 to sheep husbandry. 



The skinning process cannot last long on any 

 land however fertile, and although it is very con- 

 venient for a few market gai-deners to bring out 

 stable manure from New York fifty miles on the 

 railroad, yet the rank and file of the farmers must 

 consume their hay at home, and make their ma- 

 nure thei-e. In the four-course system of English 

 husbandry — where turnips, barley, "seeds" or 

 grass and wheat constitute the rotation, two crops, 

 the turnips and "seeds," are consumed mostly by 

 sheep on the farm, and two are sold. This pre- 

 cise rotation may not suit Loug Island, but the 

 principle of home consumption of half the pro- 

 duce suits all soils and climates. 



John Johnston, of Geneva, New York, is, I 

 think, a Scotchman, by birth, and the man who 

 has done as much as any man alive in this coun- 

 try for practical agriculture. 



He is the leader in drainage, and especially 



