MAPLE SUGAR MAKING. 
Few rural occupations possess the charm that sugar 
making does; there is. a picturesqueness and poetry about 
it surpassing that of any other branch of industry; and 
‘no man who had in boyhood the blessed privilege of 
spending a few weeks each year at its rugged and 
healthful tasks can ever think of the sugar bush with- 
out having his heart leap with a quicker bound. If 
ever the mind of the imaginative boy drinks in the 
sweet and tender influences of nature, that are to make 
broader and better and more enjoyable his later years, 
it is during these few weeks of wild, free life of work 
and play in the woods. 
In some of the counties of New York and New Eng- 
land, where rock maples abound, farmers tap from one 
hundred to one thousand trees each—sometimes even 
as many as five thousand. The sugar season extends 
over a period of three to six weeks. If the spring be 
an early one, a few men may tap a portion of their 
trees the latter part of February, that they may obtain 
a “gilt-edge” price for their product, as sugar made 
early is clearer and whiter than that made later in the. 
season ; but generally the sugar makers wait until after 
