MAPLE SAP AND SUGAR 



171 



The tapping of a maple tree, besides draining it of sap, 

 leaves an open wound in its trunk. It is essential to the 

 continued welfare of the tree that the tapping be done so as to 

 expose the interior as little as need be to the attack of fungi 

 and insects. A small hole, that will heal over completely in a 

 single season, is usually no more injurious than are the 

 perforations of the sapsuckers. Such a hole is nowadays 

 bored in the trunk with a sharp bit. 

 It is slanted slightly upward, for easy 

 drainage. It is bored through the sap- 

 wood only, since the sap-flow comes 

 from the outer layers and not from the 

 heartwood. A galvanized iron sap- 

 spout, having a hook to carry a pail, 

 is driven into the hole and left there 

 during the sap-gathering season. The 

 sap collected is freed of its water by 

 evaporation, and freed of various 

 undesirable products by skimming the 

 surface as they are raised by boiling. 

 The owner of a "sugar bush" performs 

 these operations in the great furnace- 

 heated evaporating pans of his 

 sugar house. The small boy does them on his mother's 

 kitchen range ; and if he knows the traditions of the sugar- 

 camp, he is sure to try pouring some of his syrup,- when it is 

 thickening into sugar, out in little driblets upon the surface of 

 clean snow, where it will harden into that most delicious con- 

 fection known to the initiated as "maple wax." 



We live in a day of abundant sweets. Nature has always 

 produced sugars in the juices of many plants, but we have 

 only recently learned how to obtain them in quantity and 

 how to purify them and prepare them for keeping and for use. 

 New methods of manufacture and refining, and added 



Fig. 67. Diagram to illus- 

 trate proper tapping of a 

 maple tree, a, sap spout 

 or "spile," in an augur hole, 

 and supporting a pail; 

 &, bark. The sap wood is 

 white, the heart wood is 

 shaded. 



