October, 1909 
AEE RTEAN HOMES AND GARDENS ix 
HOME-MADE SWEETENING 
Mats SUGARING is one of those 
idylls of farm life that we suppose must 
pass away, at least for the larger part of 
the States where it was formerly practised. 
The maple groves are certainly disappearing, 
and maple forests are hard to find. Our fathers 
used to retain fifty or one hundred trees, as 
near the homestead as possible, and there they 
made several hundred pounds each year for 
domestic use. The sugar was very seldom sold, 
but was stored, generally in stone jars, where 
it was packed down in a semi-hardened condi- 
tion. The product was delicious, far beyond 
most of that which now finds its way into our 
families. 
The farmer made his spiles of elder wood, 
with the pith punched out, and drew the sap 
into pans and kettles. This was gathered with 
great care and boiled in huge iron kettles, with 
frequent skimming. When the syrup state 
was secured the product was taken to the 
house, cleansed with eggs or milk, boiled over 
the fireplace, and never adulterated. Very lit- 
tle unadulterated sugar ever goes into market 
to-day. 
Planting new groves is logical. Many a 
family can save its sugar bill as easily as our 
fathers did. Their rule was ten acres of wood 
land out of every hundred, and of the wood 
land one or two acres were sure to be a maple 
grove. At the present time we could not do 
a better thing than p!ant maple windbreaks on 
the west or northern sides of our farms and 
homesteads. Our lawn maples I should hesi- 
tate to recommend for tapping, and yet very 
little harm will be done if the work is done 
neatly and the holes are so filled as to heal 
over completely. The idea is common that 
the sugar maple is not any longer a suitable tree 
for general planting, because subject to the 
attack of insects. This is a total mistake. 
The maple is just as good as ever for street 
and lawn purposes, only it will not endure 
rough work with the ax and saw. When 
planted it should be trimmed up to about the 
right place for limbing, and after that should 
not be touched by the saw. If you cut large 
limbs from the maple you let the sun in onto 
bark that can not resist the heat, and the next 
thing is splitting of the bark, after which come 
the worms. In other words, maple bark is not 
resistant to the full rays of the sun. 
Now keep a few bees and grow your own 
honey, and your sugar bill will pass away. I 
would then plant my windbreaks with alter- 
nate basswood and maple; the first to feed the 
bees and the latter to furnish sap and sugar. 
You can from four hives take up all the honey 
that a large family can use; from a dozen 
hives you can take up seven or eight hundred 
pounds, and add to your income as well as de- 
crease your outgoes. If you have an apple 
orchard or a fruit garden, especially of red 
raspberries, you own a vast amount of honey. 
It simply remains for you to find out whether 
you can collect it or not. The busy bee can 
do this, and they will do it if allowed to make 
a home with you. If not, it will go to waste, 
or it will go to your neighbor’s bees. Those 
country places pay best that look out best for 
these side issues. “The bee meanwhile is mak- 
ing your fruit trees bear better and your bushes 
to yield fertile crops; and it is the bee alone 
that can pollenate otherwise sterile flowers. 
By all means keep a few hives, averaging 
about two for each acre; and make maple sugar 
if you have been wise enough to plant the 
trees. We have fallen too much into the easy 
habit of buying our sugar. : 
Cottage 
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VERANDAS 
HERE is no part of a house that requires 
more generous treatment than the ve- 
randa. It is the house out of doors, or 
outside of doors. Its front walls are left off, 
and both the air and the sunshine can come 
in freely. In these days, when we are learn- 
ing that we ought to live out of doors, the 
veranda becomes doubly important and at- 
tractive. A shut-up house is a breeder of every 
disease, but on the veranda you can sit be- 
side a tuberculous neighbor with safety. There 
is no more reason why a reasonable animal 
should live shut up than one that can not 
reason. 
A veranda should be at least nine to twelve 
feet wide, for the little excuses that are built 
on to many of our Northern homes are only 
for architectural display. A true veranda is 
big enough for a good stretch out or lay out. It 
will hold half a dozen Morris chairs or good 
rockers. It should go at least around two 
sides of the house, if not three or four. When 
you have got such a veranda as this you will 
want only a few rooms indoors, and so the 
veranda pays for itself. 
Your veranda can be so arranged as to 
be convenient for dining when the weather is 
tolerable, and it can be most easily trans- 
tormed into a_ sleeping-apartment. The 
hammock beds which are coming into vogue 
are just the thing. Hang them so that you 
can draw them up in the daytime under the 
ceiling, which ought to be always open to the 
rafters. You can let them down for an after- 
roon nap, or for an invalid friend, or for 
sleeping of warm nights. Now you have the 
difficulty that your veranda is open to flies 
and mosquitoes. We can fix that. Take wire 
screen, which only costs two cents a square 
foot, and you can screen the entire front of 
your veranda, or such part of it as you please, 
so that no fly can ever enter. Here you are 
out of doors, with a large roomy space, a 
chance to exercise, and you can read in com- 
fort, or you can converse with your friends 
without any annoyance from “the buzzing 
world. If you live in a mosquito country this 
netting is all important. Going around two 
or three sides of your house, it obviates the 
necessity of screening doors and windows. It 
must itself, however, of course, have one 
screen door. 
The floor should slope slightly to carry off 
rains, and I advise you by no means to indulge 
in any white paint. Let the colors be modest 
ard without a power to reflect light. I do 
not myself object to a good deal of sunshine, 
but most people would prefer to have their 
verandas on the west and north sides of the 
house. It depends a little upon the outlook. 
In some cases we command a superb sunset, in 
others a noble valley, or the sunrise. There is 
a power in the morning rays for health and 
giving strength which ought not to be lost. 
Old people and weak people need an eastern 
veranda. The effect of verandas  archi- 
tecturally is not to be overlooked. They are 
far better ornaments than a lot of unmeaning 
bulges of the house, and knickknacks in the way 
of bayed windows. In the Southern States a 
two-story veranda is not uncommon. It cer- 
tainly is very rational, either for a city house 
or for a house in the country. The only 
trouble is that they can be utilized too easily 
for storing rubbish or hanging out clothes on 
Monday. For any purpose of this sort there 
should be a kitchen stoop or veranda. 
