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 
andinsects. A small hole, that will heal over completely ina 
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. Itis 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 
Esa patents seer undesirable products by skimming the 
eo As t 5 as 
meptie iaanaugurhole, Surface as they are raised by boiling. 
pag oon a ceili The owner of a “sugar bush” performs 
white, the heart wood is 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 wpon 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 
