MAPLE-SUGAR 



MAPLE-SUGAR 



431 



The old ways and the new. 



The old way, still remembered, was to "box" 

 the tree with an axe, cutting a deep "carf," or 

 a sort of pocket, boring up into it with a three- 

 fourths-inch auger, putting in a long elder spout, 

 catching the sap in a wooden sap-trough hewn out 

 of a soft-wood half -log some sixteen inches in 

 diameter, and boiling it in a huge iron kettle on a 

 pole resting on two crotched posts. The boxing 

 soon killed the trees, but trees were plentiful. 

 Then came the improvement of hanging three large 

 kettles, each on a long, strong pole hung like a 

 gate or a well-sweep, so as to raise or lower the 

 kettles or swing them from over the fire. The 

 three kettles were swung into a row, two large logs 

 were drawn up, one on each side for a sort of 

 "arch," and smaller wood was jammed and cris- 

 irossed around the kettles. Smoke, coals, ashes and 

 dirt fell in, the sap scorched on the kettles, and 

 the syrup was dark. 



The next improvement in boiling is shown in 

 Fig. 651. Five large iron kettles were set in a 

 crude stone arch with chimney and open mouth, 

 and wood about ten feet long was thrust under the 

 kettles. Such an arch fifteen feet long, and holding 

 five large kettles, would boil into thin, dark syrup 



Fig. 651. OM-fasUoned "arcli" and "kettles". 



one to two barrels of sap per hour, according to 

 the skill and diligence of the firing. The corru- 

 gated evaporator, 4 x 16 feet, shown in Fig. 652, 

 with good wood and good firing will evaporate five 

 barrels per hour into the finest eleven-pound syrup 

 ready for the market, with half the fuel. Forty to 

 fifty gallons of sap make oiie eleven-pound gallp" 

 of syrup in Ohio. 



Details of the sugar-making processes. 



Spouts. — The forms of spouts used by writer, 

 after trials of many sorts, are the conical (Fig. 

 653), made of heavy tin, and the flanged (Fig. 654). 

 Spouts are on sale at hardware stores in the 

 maple regions and are advertised in agricultural 

 papers. The spout in Fig. 653 is cheaper in first 

 cost, but the one in Fig. 654 is more durable 

 and offers less obstruction to the flow of the 

 sap. The writer uses the spout in Fig. 653 in a 

 three-eighths-inch hole the first half or third of the 



season, then rims the holes with a one-half-inch 

 curve-lip Cook bit and uses the spout in Fig. 654. 

 The rimming freshens the drying hole and increases 

 the flow of sap, and does not wound and injure the 

 tree as boring a new hole ; and the partly soured 

 spout is removed. In Ohio, the tapping should be- 



Flg. 652. A modem evaporator and iron arch. 



gin the first bright, warm day after February 15, 

 and the season lasts sometimes until April 10, or 

 as long as frosty nights or snow-storms are fol- 

 lowed by warm days ; hence the need of freshening 

 or rimming the holes and removing the partly 

 soured spouts. The spout shown in Pig. 653 has 

 now been made heavier and longer, so thai; it 

 answers for seven-sixteenths and one-half inch re- 

 tapping. 



Buckets. — The buckets should be of "IX" tin, 

 very slightly smaller at the bottom than at the top 

 so as to "nest" into each other, in nests of twenty 

 or more, for convenience in handling. They should 

 hold twelve quarts each. Each bucket should have 

 a three-fourths-inch hole punched through the tin 

 close under its wire rim, to slip over the spout to 

 hang the bucket firmly on and against the tree. 

 The bucket should be covered tightly, to exclude 

 rain, insects, dirt and the like, and to prevent the 

 sap freezing on cold nights and souring on warm 

 days. 



Covers. — The cheapest and best covers, all things 

 considered, are home-made, of boards 12 x 12 

 inches square, planed on both sides and all edges, 

 and painted. Home-grown lumber and winter work 

 reduce the cash cost. By painting one side red and 

 the other side white and reversing each cover as 

 the sap is gathered from the bucket, mistakes and 

 omissions in gathering are avoided and when two 

 men are gathering much time is saved from useless 

 travel. If a tree is missed, the (wrong) color of its 

 bucket cover reveals 

 the mistake ; and two 

 trips need never be 

 taken to the same 

 bucket, in doubt as to 

 whether its sap 

 has been taken. 

 The writer 

 knows of no 

 one thing more 

 essential to the 

 production o f 



Fig. 654. 

 Flanged galTanized-iron spout. 



first-class syrup in the variable Ohio climate than 

 covers, and the bi-colored covers are a great con- 

 venience in gathering, washing buckets at the 

 trees, and in other ways. 



