118 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
| nmg 
_ 
A GROUP OF CH 
taller, the effect is extremely funuy. When he 
suddenly shortens the figure by lowering the broom, 
or when, having lifted it as high as will answer, 
he suddenly bends over, taking the broom with 
him, to find the key-hole at the bottom of the door, 
the effect is so ludicrous that it is always hailed by 
shouts of laughter. The boy who plays the old 
woman should always keep a side view towards the 
company, and never lift the broom so high as to 
separate the shawl on the broom from his own 
dress, and thus make known the secret of the trick. 
This should be rehearsed before showing it to a 
company, to make sure that the dress is all right. 
It would be well to let some person keep up a talk 
in explanation of the old lady’s doings. 
A Candy Pull. 
Spring, in many parts of the United States, brings 
with it the making of the Maple Sugar, and all the 
sport which attends this work in the woods. It 
was my good fortune to be brought up on a farm 
that had a large number of maple trees in the 
forest, and yearly these trees were tapped, and the 
sap that flowed from them was gathered in great 
vats, and boiled in large kettles until it was a 
thick syrup. Many a time have I watched the 
burning embers through the night, and with eyes 
weeping from the smoke, have fallen asleep in the 
cabin while some one kept up the fire and the boil¬ 
ing of the sap. This is the most familiar kind of 
sugar making in the Northern States ; but the boys 
and girls who live in the far South where the 
weather is much warmer than in the region of New 
York are acquainted with another method of sugar 
making, that is more complicated than the making 
of maple sugar, as it is also more extensively 
1LDREN IN THE MIDST OF THEIR 
1 practised. There, the plants from which the sap 
is obtained, are grown as a crop, much as corn is 
raised in the North ; and instead of cutting a hole 
in the tree and letting the sap run out along a 
groove in a spile, the whole plant is cut off near 
the ground, and run between rollers which squeeze 
the juice from the stalks of the sugar canc. After 
this the juice is boiled down in large pans, and 
finally there is a thick syrup from which the sugar 
is formed. The sugar as it first forms is of a brown 
! color, and needs to be further treated, or purified, 
before it is white or colorless, as we see it in its 
pure state in the loaf or granulated sugar so gen¬ 
erally found upon the dining-room table. 
Not the least interesting things connected with 
the sweet product of the sugar cane is the pulling 
of candy. It is scarcely necessary for me to de¬ 
scribe the steps that need to be taken to have a 
candy pull. Of course there must be the candy, 
and then it needs to be pulled. A quantity of mo¬ 
lasses is boiled in some sort of kettle or other dish, 
until it is thought to be “done,” that is, thick 
enough when cold to be taken in the hand, and 
yet not so hard but what it can be easily pulled out 
into long ribbons. It requires some little skill or 
experience to know just when to remove the boiling 
candy. I recall one time when we took off the 
kettle too soon, and all hands had a very sticky 
time, even the free use of butter did not prevent 
the candy from getting between the fingers, and 
clinging close to one hand when it was desired to 
put it into the other. A few minutes more of boil¬ 
ing would have taken out the excess of water, and 
made the candy hard enough to be handled not 
only with ease but also with much pleasure. In 
what is the fun of pulling candy ? I suppose, be¬ 
cause it is so easy to make it take any shape. ChiJ- 
CANDY PULLING. 
dren like to play with wet clay or stiff mud for the 
same reason. I have known a child to find a good 
deal of fun in a piece of putty, simply because it 
was plastic, and could be molded easily. But 
candy is far better than putty or clay, because it is 
sweet, and most agreeable to eat. It is rare for 
a party of candy pullers to have as much candy at 
the close of the pull, as when they began. As it is 
pulled it keeps growing less and less by an occa¬ 
sional bite been taken just to see how it is getting 
along. Another thing that makes candy pulling 
attractive, is the change of color that takes place 
in the candy as the work progresses. It grows 
whiter and whiter, and this leads to a strife to see 
who can get the whitest roll in the shortest time. 
It is not always the one, who, with a little greed it 
may be, takes the largest quantity to pull, that 
wins in this race. Perhaps the most enjoyable 
thing connected with a candy pull is that it offers 
every one, young and old, an opportunity to take a 
part. No one need be left “out in the cold,” as 
may be the case with some kinds of amusement. 
Neat house-keepers are sometimes opposed to 
candy pulls as there is room for much soiling of 
furniture, clothing, etc. It is seldom that a child 
comes out from a candy pull as neat and clean as 
when he went in. He may be sweeter by far, and 
yet itis a sweetness that will wash off. Take it al¬ 
together I do not know of a better way to make a 
gathering of children remember their visit to a 
friend than to give them a candy pull. It is also as 
evident that it is an excellent method of impressing 
upon the one who gives it, the fact that the pull 
has been held in the house. 
The engraving herewith presented shows a group 
of merry children in the midst of their candy 
pulling sports. Uncle Hal. 
