SUGAR. 



209 



from burning the liquid after it is made to the consistence of 

 molasses, since, when this is done, it is impossible to convert it 

 into sugar ; a tough, black, sticky mass, of little value, being the 

 result. Indeed, constant care and attention is required to pro- 

 duce a first-rate article : for though sugar may be made in almost 

 any way where the sap can be procured, yet unless the strictest care 

 is observed in the processes, in gathering and boiling the sap, 

 clarifying the syrup, and in converting the syrup to sugar, a dirty 

 inferior article will be made, instead of the beautiful and delicious 

 sweet which the maple, properly treated, is sure to yield. 



The quantity of sugar produced in a year varies considerably 

 from the same trees. The cause of this difference is to be found 

 in the depth of snow, continued cold, or a sudden transition from 

 cold to warm, thus abridging the period of sugar-making. A 

 sharp frost at night, with clear warm days, is the most favorable 

 to the sugar-maker. Perhaps four pounds of sugar from a tree 

 may be a pretty fair average of seasons generally, although we 

 have known the growth to exceed six pounds, and sink as low as 

 three. A man will take care of one hundred trees easily, during 

 the season of sugar, which usually lasts from about the middle of 

 March into April, perhaps employing him twenty days in the 

 whole. Dr. Jackson, in his Eeport of the Maine G-eological Sur- 

 vey, gives the following instances of the production of sugar in 



that State : — 



Lbs. of Sugar. 



At the Forks of the Kennebec, twelve persons made .... 3,605 



On Xo. 1, 2d range, one man and a boy made 1,000 



In Farming-ton, Mr. Titcomb made 1,500 



In Moscow, thirty families made 10,500 



In Bingham, twenty-five families made 9,000 



In Concord, thirty families made 11,000 



A cold and dry winter is followed with a greater yield of sugar 

 from the maple than a season very moist and variable. Trees 

 growing in wet places will yield more sap, but much less sugar 

 from the same quantity, than trees on more elevated and drier 

 ground. The red and white maple will yield sap, but it has much 

 less of the saccharine quality than the rock or sugar maple. 



The work begins usually about the first of March. The tree 

 will yield its sap long before vegetation appears from the bud : 

 frequently the most copious flow is before the snow disappears 

 from the ground. 



Some persons have a camp in their maple orchards, where large 

 cauldrons are set in which to boil down the sap to the consistency 

 of a thick syrup : others take the liquid to their houses, and there 

 boil down and make the sugar. 



The process begins by the preparation of spouts and troughs 

 or tubs for the trees : the spouts or tubes are made of elder, 

 sumach, or pine, sharpened to fit an auger hole of about three- 

 fourths of an inch in diameter. The hole is bored a little upward, 

 at the distance horizontally of five or six inches apart, and about 

 twenty inches from the ground on the south or sunny side of the 



p 



