/culture. 
EXCELSIOR 
I *3.00 1’ER YEAR, 
i Single i\o., Eight Ceuta. 
NEW YORK CITY AND ROCHESTER N, Y 
■41 Park Row, New York, 
82 RuiTalo St., Rochester. 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25,1871 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by I). D. T. Mooim, in the office of the Eilmn-lan of Congress, at Washington.] 
length, and an inch in 
diameter; made by 
boring a hole the entire 
length, one - quarter 
inch in diameter, and 
running a red hot wire 
through the hole to 
burn out any pith that 
may be left in the 
sumac — the one end ' 
tapered so as to drive 
in the half-inch hole 
in the tree. Wo hang 
wrought iron hook, made as shown In Fig. 
1, driven about four inches below the spiles 
and between the two, so that the sap will 
run readily into the buckets from both 
spiles. We use both tin and wooden buck¬ 
ets ; but tin is lar preferable. The wooden 
ones are hung on the hooks by a little 
wire staple put in the bucket about two 
inches from the top. The tin buckets 
are made with a wire ear, as shown at 
a in Fig. 2; so that they hang on hooks 
readily. 
cloth strainer over the top of the gathering 
tub, so that the sap can be strained as it is 
gathered. 
BomiNO the Sap. 
We now come to the boiling of the sap, 
which we do in sheet-iron pans, set on an 
arch made expressly for the purpose, illus¬ 
trated herewith, and built as follows;—I dug 
a trench deep enough to get below the frost, 
and filled it with stone to the surface; upon 
this we laid brick walls (2 2) eight inches 
thick, laying the brick crosswise every altcr- 
raclc made so as to let 
the hogshead, or tub, 
clown between the 
wheels almost to the 
ground, only high 
enough to clear ob¬ 
structions, as shown in 
Fig. 3. If the boiling 
works are on a hill-side, 
so that the sap will 
run from the gathering 
tub into the store tub, 
it is, perhaps, better to have the hogs¬ 
head, or gathering tub, on the side, with a 
hole cut in the staves to empty the sap from 
tlm gathering pails. Tf the boiling works 
are on level ground, it is better to have the 
tub stand on the cud, so yon can put a pump 
ill the gathering tub, and have a good place 
to stand while pumping the sap over into 
the store tub, which should be high enough 
to allow the sap to run from .that into the 
boiling pans, (l use a tin pump three inches 
in diameter and about five feet long, like 
that shown in Fig. 4.) Always put a coarse 
mnoimi 
MAPLE SUGAS MAKING. 
As the season is at hand for the manufac¬ 
ture of Maple Sugar — the great saccharine 
production of the Northern States and Can¬ 
ada—the accompanying illustration, and fol¬ 
lowing practical article, will prove timely, 
interesting and valuable. The sketches in 
the main engraving, exhibiting tiie various 
branches of manufacture, or labor in the 
“ hush,”—such as Cutting the Fuel, Tapping 
the Trees, Gathering and Boiling the Sap, 
&c., — are by a Vermonter who knows 
whereof he portrays. Most of the sketches 
represent the. modern processes or branches 
—though the mode of boiling witii a potash 
kettle (shown in the right-hand upper corner) 
h not tin; latest, improvement, while the sap 
is, it) some sections, conveyed on wheels (as 
described iu the article below) instead of 
upon runners. 
Tiie subjoined article is from the pen, and 
founded upon the 
long practical ex¬ 
perience, of Mr. J. 
D. F Woor.sTOX \ i 
ot'fJurwawl Co., N. V 
Y., wItom we know • m 
to be a manufactut- ^ 
er of Maple Sugar 
and Sirup of yu- 
perlor qual i ty—h ay- 
ing received and 
tested liberal sam- in 
pies of both pro- 
ducts from him 
V'-ars ago ; WWi 
T!,,. Way We Make • WM. 
.uapte su«ur. • •ry yMife,;. 
The first thing in '.A .-.Ll -M 5 wffgj. 
order is is to get L Jp 
the buckets, splits 
and gathering tubs !. q6§i|u Msz. 
"HI, and give them i 
a good washing and -nr0- 
scalding; for if you t - ■ • '*' 
wi -h to make a nice , y 7 - _ - 
article you must "A ^ 
practice the most 
scrupulous cleanli- 
ness from the begin- f 
FIRE^AECH FOR BOILING-PANS- 
GATHERING THE S.YP. 
For Gathering, a common molasses hogs¬ 
head answers a very good purpose; but a 
tub made of pine, about three and a half or 
four feet high, and larger than a hogshead is 
better. Cut a square hole in the top, about, 
eighteen inches across, and have the cover 
fitted nicely, so that the sap will not slop 
while drawing it, as we sometimes have to, 
over rough roads. A pair of bob-sleds are 
better than a long sleigh -to use while 
gathering the sap. When the snow is off, 
we use a wagon to gather the sap, with a 
PlOUItR 3. 
nate tier, until it was one foot high. Wc 
then put on our cross-pieces (1 L 1) of rail¬ 
way iron, three of them, to lay the wood on, 
(some use a regular cast-iron grate, and door 
to shut up tight, which is still better.) O 11 
the trout end of the arch we laid Hie wall 
^ about sixteen inches 
higher for the front 
pan; for Hie back 
/ ij pan we did not lay 
the wall so high as 
for tiie front one, by 
. just four and one- 
> fourth inches. Tiie 
object ot this is to 
allow the sap to run 
from the front pail 
. K:' Aufl * nt0 the hack pan, 
and thus save the 
Fromm 4 . 
dipping from pan 
to pan. The size 
of our pans (a very 
Convenient one) is 
about six feet in 
length by two feet 
four inches in'width, 
and made out of tiie 
best Russia iron. 
The wall is laid so 
that the pans will 
set on the wall two 
inches on each side. 
Under tiie back 
pan, (at d,) I filled 
up the arch with 
dirt to within four 
or six inches of the 
pan, so as to throw 
the heat close up 
Fra. 1. Fig. 3. 
ning to the em,l. 
A Her having the 
buckets, etc., clean- 
eH, take them to the 
woods, when the 
weather is warm 
enough to have tiie f 
sap run, witii the ! 
wind in tiie North i 
or U est; the South i 
wind dries up the (\ 
sap very soon. 
Tapping the \ 
Tubes. 
Tor Tapping I 
nse a hall-inch hit 
and brace, and bore 
into the tree about 
an inch and a-haif, 
using two spiles to 
a tree, and putting 
them about six 
inches apart. For 
spiles we use pine 
or sumac, about six 
or eight inches in 
Fromm 5. 
to the pan. Tiie 
chimney is eight or 
ten feet high, which 
gives a good draft. 
Most people set 
the back pan Hie 
highest. 1 set. mine 
tiie other way — 
front pan the high¬ 
est (connecting Hie 
two with a cast iron 
shelf, a,)—for thefol- 
BV', jft, 
ft ’ 
Em 
i 
Krv' ' vj 
.a 
REvans Agfe 
