XXII. MAPLE SAP AND SUGAR 



"I wonder if the sap is stirring yet, 

 If wintry birds are dreaming of a mate, 

 If frozen snowdrops feel as yet the sun 

 And crocus fires are kindling one by one: 



Sing, robin, sing; 

 I still am sore in doubt concerning Spring'' . 



— Christina C. Rossetti (The First Spring Day). 



When our forefathers came to America, they found one 

 branch of the world's sugar industry indigenous here. The 

 making of both syrup and sugar from the sap of the maple 

 tree had been practiced from time immemorial by the Indians. 

 Maple sugar was the commonest delicacy in their rather plain 

 and unattractive bill of fare. It appealed to the white man's 

 palate, and, after furs and corn, it became one of the common- 

 est articles of barter and of commerce. It was especially 

 important to the early white traders along the St. Lawrence 

 river, for that stream traverses the heart of the maple sugar 

 region. The white man learned to make it, and soon it was 

 used in all the households of the pioneers. In the north- 

 eastern part of the United States and in adjacent portions of 

 Canada, maple sugar was for several generations the only 

 sugar to be had. 



The aboriginal sugar-maker cut a hole through the bark of 

 the maple tree, and collected the sweet sap that flowed there- 

 from in vessels made of bark. Then he separated the water 

 from the sugar, in part by freezing (removing the cakes of ice 

 that formed on the surface of the vessel), and in part by 

 evaporation. His methods were crude, and his product was 

 dark colored and dirty; but it was sweet and wholesome. 

 The dirt it contained was mostly clean dirt — bits of bark and 

 chips and insects that fell into the sap, extracts from the bark 

 containers, and decomposition products of the sugar itself. 



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