MAPLE-SUGAR 



MAPLE-SUGAR 



433 



set both legs in sap enough to cover the return 

 cups (b and c. Pig. 657), open the small stop-cock 

 shown at the top, and suck through the rubber tube 

 above until the siphon is full ; then shut the stop- 

 cock and the flow begins toward the lower level. 

 In sucking up boiling sap through the small rubber 

 tube above the stop-cock, the mouth was sometimes 

 burned. To overcome this, a small, oval, glass 

 bulb (a. Fig. 657) was inserted, with a small rub- 

 ber tube above and below attached to the stop- 

 cock. When the sap rises to the bulb 

 it may be seen, the stop-cock shut, 

 ^o. an(j no injury to the mouth results. 



Pig. 657. A good siphon. 



Fig. 658. The heater. 



Heater (Fig. 658). — This is a deep tubular pan, 

 with sap all around the tubes. It is set at the 

 chimney end of the arch and the flames must all 

 pass through the tubes. The idea is to utilize more 

 of the heat. But it is hard to clean, the sap must 

 be carried by a tube to the front end of the evap- 

 orator, and altogether it gives so much trouble that 

 it is less used now than formerly, most farmers 

 preferring to utilize the heat by means of a longer 

 evaporator. 



Interchangeable pans. — Two of these, each with 

 two compartments, are shown at the chimney end 

 of the evaporator (Fig. 652). The "niter" settles 

 and hardens on the bottom of the rear section, or, 

 at the most, the last two sections. When it reaches 

 the eleven-pound syrup it is held only in suspension 

 and slowly settles on the bottom of any pan where 

 such syrup is boiling. There it burns or hardens 

 on, retards the boiling and, if left on too long, gives 

 the syrup a burnt or sort of caramel flavor and 

 color. It is hard, and is removed with chisels, 

 which injure the pan. This takes time, and the 

 boiling must stop. But, if the fire is slackened a 

 little, the siphons can be removed and in a moment 

 two men can interchange the last two pans (four . 

 sections). Then the boiling at once proceeds and 

 the thinner, sappy syrup soon removes the sedi- 

 ment. This interchangeable feature seems to be 

 valuable for this reason. The rear pans are not 

 corrugated, as flat bottoms are better for syrup, 

 which boils with less fire, and they are more easily 

 cleaned of their hardened sediment. 



Boiling. — The cold sap enters immediately over 

 the fire from the store-troughs, through an inch 

 rubber hose or tube. Its rapidity of fiow is exactly 

 adjusted to any rate of boiling, no matter how 

 variable, by an automatic float-regulator, a little 

 device that sits in the sap at the front corner 

 of the evaporator and never fails to do its work 

 well. The writer's evaporator, 4x16 feet, has two 

 corrugated pans which are together ten feet long, 

 instead of one, and there are three narrow syrup 

 pans, six feet in all, each with three compartments, 



B28 



instead of two with two compartments each. The 

 sap thus enters at one corner (right-hand corner 

 in the writer's), and is pushed slowly forward by 

 the incoming sap under the force of gravity as it 

 lowers toward the rear by evaporation. It passes 

 thus, in the writer's evaporator, back and forth 

 through fifteen different compartments and four 

 siphons until it is drawn out at the left-hand rear 

 corner as finished syrup. The writer strains this 

 syrup through flannel or felt to take out all the 

 malate of lime still held in suspension, and then it 

 is canned air-tight in self-sealing, gallon tin cans. 

 Some persons think that it retains its peculiar fia- 

 vor better if canned at boiling heat, but it does 

 not seem so to the writer and hence he usually 

 cans it cold. 



A saccharometer or a pair of scales tests the 

 thickness of each gallon drawn off. If a full gallon 

 weighs ten and one-half pounds when hot, it shrinks 

 in cooling so that a full gallon when cold weighs 

 eleven pounds. The experienced syrup-maker's eye 

 at once tells. When it "aprons off " from the edge 

 of a dipper (empty except the drippings) in drops 

 nearly an inch wide, it is ready to draw off for 

 syrup. 



"Cleansing" the syrup. — A careful sugar-maker 

 does not cleanse the syrup; he keeps the syrup 

 clean from first to last, and there is not the least 

 need of "cleansing" it with milk or eggs, as in the 

 old times. The bucket covers, gathering-cask or 

 can, covered store-troughs and straining as it 

 enters them, exclude practically all dirt, and the 

 skimming while boiling, and straining the syrup 

 take out any that might remain. 



Color of the syrup. — The very best and most delicate 

 flavored syrup is a very light amber color, as light- 

 colored and clear as white clover honey. The 

 writer gathers as soon as the sap is fairly out of 

 the tree and boils it all rapidly before stopping for 

 the night. All buckets are washed usually about 

 once a week, and always as soon as the least white 

 film of sourness begins to form on the bottom. Hot 

 water is drawn around to the trees, and the buckets 

 are washed and wiped. The spouts are pulled and 

 scalded, or new and clean ones are used, and the 

 holes are rimmed every two or three weeks. This 

 keeps the sap sweet and the syrup light-colored 

 and delicate-flavored through the entire season. 

 Sap soured so that it has even a slight filmy white- 

 ness makes dark-colored, rank-fiavored syrup, 

 greatly inferior to the best in flavor and in price. 

 By washing buckets and spouts and freshening the 

 holes whenever they need it, it is possible to make 

 fancy "first-run" syrup the entire season until the 

 buds begin to swell. At this time the syrup, 

 though often of very light color, has a "buddy," 

 sickish flavor, very different from the rank taste of 

 the dark syrup made from souring sap. Then the 

 season is over for making first-class syrup, although 

 in Ohio there is sometimes another excellent run. 

 Soft maples bud and spoil the sap much earlier 

 than the hard maples, and are seldom tapped in 

 Ohio. 



Quality. — Only the very best syrup pays a good 

 profit. Maple sweets can never compete in cheap- 



