322 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



evaporating room, 12' x 24' will be found a convenient size, with a sugaring-off room, 

 12' x 12', and a woodshed of the same dimensions. The latter should be open in 

 front, with a wide sliding door opening into the evaporator room directly in front of 

 the fire arch. With such an arrangement there will be no dust or dirt blowing in 

 from the woodpile. The sugaring-off room should be lined with stout shelves, which 

 will prove convenient in handling or storing the goods. The best place for the 

 receiving tank is on an enclosed or covered platform, built outside the house, in order 

 that the sap may be kept cool. Such a house will prove comfortable, convenient, and 

 can be kept perfectly clean. Its cost ought not to exceed $160. 



Life in a sugar bush has its attractions for every lover of the woods. A bright 

 day in early spring revives every energy in man and nature ; the pure air and vigorous 

 exercise calls into action each healthful, joyous impulse. The forest is waking from 

 its winter's sleep. The bark of the young poplars, birches and wild cherries — olive 

 green, golden yellow, and copper red — takes on a lively hue from the rising sap. The 

 wasting snow discloses brown spots of earth where among the wet, discolored leaves 

 may be seen the first spring flowers, some of them blooming in all their purity on the 

 edge of a snowbank. The tiny brooks, no longer hidden by the ice, send forth a 

 pleasant murmur. 



The surface of the snow is marked with curious little tracks in which are easily 

 recognized the various forms of animal life that people the forest; the eye catches the 

 alert movements of the squirrels as they run swiftly up and down the trees; there is 

 the sound of woodpeckers or the distant drumming of the partridge, while from 

 the leafless branches may be heard the vernal song of the first returning birds. The 

 trees, unclothed by foliage, reveal the graceful arrangement of their limbs ; each 

 species is quickly recognized by its distinctive habit of growth; and, in the grand old 

 aisles of gray and lofty trunks, reaching up into vaulted arches of graceful tracery, one 

 is lost in admiration of the details of forest architecture. More than all, there is the 

 restful stillness of the woods, in which as a pleasant contrast is heard at times the 

 woodman's axe and the crackling fires of the sugar maker. 



The old-fashioned methods of sugar making are seen no more. But with their 

 disappearance there has gone also the fun and romance which years ago were wont to 

 be associated with these scenes of woodland life. There are many people who 

 treasure in their memories pleasant recollections of youthful hours spent in the sugar 

 camps. They recall to mind its many scenes, the forest at night with its dark 

 shadows that even the firelight did not penetrate; the silhouettes of the men working 

 at the boiling kettles, or the shadowy forms dimly seen moving through the woods 

 from tree to tree; the blackness of the forest overhead, and the whiteness of the 

 snow-covered ground. 



