APRIL 
71 
kettle is suspended over the fire from the short arm of a long 
lever^ which works around a pivot on some stump near : by 
pushing the long arm of this lever, a man can instantly 
swing the kettle off the fire with all ease ; and these posts 
and cross-beam are not needed. But we are a very unim- 
proving people. See the elegance of our utensils ! Here is a 
tin basin with a long crooked stick for a handle ; this is to 
bale the sap or sugar in or out ; here is a tin skimmer, with 
a similar handle^ to scum the liquor ; a shovel made with 
the axe;, out of a piece of board ; and a poker, made of a beech 
sapling. We take as many of our materials as we can, you 
see, from the surrounding woods, perhaps in compliment to 
the presiding dryads and satyrs of the place ; or, perhaps^, 
— from necessity. 
C. — What is in the pot now ? 
F, — It was filled this morning with sap out of the holder, 
that large cask that stands beside you, and as the watery 
part has been evaporated, its place has been supplied by re- 
peated fillings-up from the same reservoir. If you taste 
it, you will find that it has become very sweet and much 
thicker than the sap. A piece of fat pork thrown in, has 
the effect of refining it, by making all extraneous matters rise 
in a thick coat of scum, which is carefully taken off from 
time to time as it accumulates. When it has boiled to a 
considerable consistence, about that of oil, it is baled out 
into this other cask, and is called syrup. The first part of 
the process, the first boiling, is then complete. 
(7, - — What more remains to be done ? 
F, — The same process is repeated, when they have sap 
enough ; and the syrup is added to what is already in the 
cask, until there is a sufficiency collected to sugar off,'' as 
it is called ; that is, to complete the process, by boiling the 
syrup over again, until it will granulate or crystallize. This 
