164 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. 
the first warm days of March before commencing prep- 
arations for the spring campaign. In the larger 
“bushes”? many of the improvements and conveniences 
are made to be permanent: <A stone arch is built, large 
enough to support two or three broad but shallow 
sheet-iron pans and a swinging caldron kettle. A rude 
but comfortable cabin, fifteen or twenty feet square of 
boards or split logs, is erected just in front of the arch, 
and but a few feet from it, to serve as a dwelling for 
the men during the sugar season, and as a storage house 
for the buckets the balance of the year. Convenient 
roads, through which the teams may be driven to draw 
the sap, are made by cutting out the underbrush and 
fallen trees. A few cords of wood are cut in the fall 
and hauled near the camp, as a part of seasoned fuel is 
almost a necessity. After two or three bright days in 
March, and while the weather is still crisp, the sap 
buckets are taken out and scalded, and then distributed 
through the woods, leaving one near each maple tree— 
and if the tree be very large, perhaps two. These pre- 
liminary arrangements completed, further work is 
deferred until the day is warm enough to set the sap in 
circulation. A warm south wind is favorable to start 
it, but a west wind is necessary for a prolonged run. 
Now commences the active work in the woods. ‘The 
sound of the axe is heard from morning till night, and 
the clear, metallic ring of the hammer and tapping 
gouge awaken the woodland echoes ; the men and boys, 
with whistle and song, join in the chorus, and the pic- 
ture is one of cheerful industry. 
