MAPLE SUGAR. 
25 
trough or “ spile,” as the country people call it, is inserted ; this is 
usually made of a branch of alder or sumach, which is sharpened 
at one end and the pith taken out for two or three inches to re- 
ceive the sap ; from that point it is hollowed into an open trough, 
Avhich rests upon the sap-bucket at the foot of the tree. These 
buckets are a regular article of manufacture in the coimtry ; they 
are made of pine, or at times of bass-wood, and sell at twenty 
cents a piece. They are left standing one at the foot of each tree, 
to receive the sap as it flows, the little stream of sweet and limpid 
fluid running more or less freely, according to the state of the 
weather and the character of the tree ; twelve quarts are sometimes 
taken in twenty-four hours from one tree, while others scarcely 
yield a third as much. The buckets are watched, of course, and 
emptied from time to time, the sap being carried to the boiler, 
which is often placed over a furnace upon an arch of bricks ; often 
one large iron boiler is used, but pans of tin are thought prefera- 
ble, as they give less color and taste to the sugar. This carrying the 
sap to the boiler is a laborious part of the process, and some farm- 
ers have all their lesser spouts connected with a large trough 
leading to a common receptacle near the furnace ; the buckets, 
however, are more generally used. Two or three hundred trees 
are frequently tapped in the same wood, and as the sap is mn- 
ning, the fires are bm-ning, and the sugar is boiling all together, 
day and night, it is a busy moment at the “ bush.” The persons 
at work there, usually eat and sleep on the spot until their task 
is done ; and it is a favorite rallying place with the children and 
young people of the farms, who enjoy vastly this touch of camp 
life, to say nothing of the new sugar, and a draught of fresh sap now 
and then. The sap, however, is not thought a wholesome drink, 
2 
