DENSMOUK] 



PLANTS AS FOOD 



311 



time. Tapping was done only by those who were expert in the use 

 of an ax, though women as well as men engaged in the task. (PI. 33, 

 b.) The trees were arranged in paths so that the collecting of the sap 

 could be conveniently done. A good worker could make 300 tappings 

 in a day. The tapping consisted in making a diagonal cut in a tree 

 about Sy 2 inches long and about 3 feet from the ground. Below the 

 lower end of this cut the bark was removed in a perpendicular line for 

 a distance of about 4 inches. A wooden spile was inserted below this 

 point. The wooden spiles were commonly made of slippery elm and 

 were about 6 inches long, 2 inches wide, and curved on the under 

 surface. The distance of a spile below the cut in a maple tree 

 depended on the grain and hardness of the wood. If it were inserted 

 too near the cut there was danger that the wood might split. The 

 cut in which the spile was inserted could be made with an ax, or with 

 a tool resembling a curved chisel, which was pounded into the tree 

 and removed for the insertion of the wooden spile. 



The sap dishes were distributed in the early morning, being placed 

 on the ground or the snow beneath the taps. If the weather were 

 cold the sap did not run during the night, and accordingly in the 

 late afternoon when it stopped running the people began to gather it, 

 pouring from the dishes into bark pails carried by the women, or large 

 buckets carried by the men. In the very large camps it was some- 

 times necessary to have barrels stationed at a distance from the sugar 

 lodge, and to fill them and haul them on sleds. A shoulder yoke 

 enabling a man to carry two buckets was used among the Chippewa 

 to some extent, but it is said that the use of the yoke was learned from 

 the French, and did not represent a native custom. 



When the sap was taken to the camp it was put into the kettles or 

 poured into the troughs at the doors. The large kettles were at first 

 filled only partially, the sap being heated in the smaller kettles near 

 the ends of the fire and emptied from these into the large kettles, 

 in which the actual boiling was done. By this means the entire 

 quantity of sap was heated gradually. (PI. 33, a.) 



All night the fires were kept burning and the kettles boiling, cer- 

 tain people taking turns in watching them. If a kettle boiled too 

 rapidly a branch of spruce attached to a stick was dipped into the 

 froth. The motion was little more than a brushing of the froth with 

 the spruce, but the bubbling at once subsided. By early morning 

 the sirup was slightly thickened and ready to strain. In the old days 

 a mat woven of narrow strips of basswood bark was placed over an 

 extra kettle, and the sirup was strained through this mat, being 

 dipped from the kettle with large wooden spoons. In more recent 

 times the sirup is slowly strained through a burlap, and it is said 

 that a clean threadbare white blanket was occasionally used for this 



