THE t URAL HEW-YORKER. 
spouts, and a half-inch deeper in rimming, 
three weeks later or so. 
Gathering 
is done with a team, and a cask on a boat-sled 
(a, Fig, 5). Tin; cask is about five feet long 
and two feet in diameter in the middle, and four 
inches larger (in diameter) behind than before, 
and holds four barrels. Its front end is raised 
four inches, so the line of the top of thccask 
is level or parallel with the runners of the 
sled. It will then empty dry on level ground, 
when the faucet is open. Each man has a 
four-gallon pail with a '‘Up” like that on a 
gallon measure, to prevent spilling in emptying 
into the tunnel. I always laugh to see a green- 
haud empty sap from the bucket. He sets his 
pail down (stoop), lays the bucket cover on 
the ground (stoop), takes off the bucket, spills 
a little sap aud empties the rest into his pail 
(stoop), replaces the bucket, picks up its cover 
(stoop), and replaces it with a little dirt on to 
fall into the bucket, and picks up his pail 
(stoop) and starts off. 1 say to him, “ stop 
stooping. Be coutenl to be lazy in this. Your 
back will be tired enough by night if you gather 
forty barrels of sap. Try another bucket. 
Face the tree with the bucket between you and 
it, (See Fig. 14). Stand erect and bold the 
pail iu your left band to ihe left of the bucket 
and a little lower. Put the cover under your 
left arm, grasp the bucket firmly with your 
right baud either by its rim or just below the 
bottom according to bight, and turn it on its 
spout for a pivot till the sap Is all in your pail; 
replace the cover (inverted) and you are done, 
without bending your back, dirtying Ihe cover, 
spilling the sap or wasting lime.” All sap 
should bu gathered the day it rims, and boiled 
at once aud without stopping, even if it takes 
all night, otherwise the product is not so good. 
Cleanliness 
is indispensable. Let no dirt get into the sap. 
Not much can with buckets covered tight, but 
it is well to have a strainer in the tunnel aud 
another at the store trough, and auother above 
the rubber feed-pipe. Scald all buckets about 
once a week, and vats, boilers, etc, oltener, 
if you would make “gilt-edged” sirup or 
sugar. The buckets cau be scalded at the trees, 
with hot water drawn about in the gathering 
cask, and do not require so much work as 
one would suppose : aud there is usually a day 
or so between the “ runs ” when it may he done 
It costs, hut it pays in the quality of the sirup. 
After washing, it is well to invert or “ jack ” 
the bucket on the spout as shown in Fig. 13, a. 
It dries uicely in that position and may remain 
so safely till needed again to catch sap. It 
pays to invert after a run even if we do not 
wash the buckets. We used to invert oil our 
wooden spouts often, but right here Is the one 
fault I referred to above in the Eureka No. 2. 
The notches are so near the tree that they hold 
the inverted bucket too straight up, so that 
even a light wind will blow many of them 
down. The notches hold the bucket too close, 
too. right side up, if the tree slants back at all, 
as in Fig. 12. The spout needs another pair of 
notches further out from ihe tree, aud the in¬ 
ventor should put them there, at least for the 
Ohio market. 
Boiling ami Straining. 
Cleanliness iu boiling, too, is important. 
Shut the shed door when you split wood, aud 
look out for dust aud dirt on the woodiu firing 
up, lest they get into the boiling sap. A curved 
sheet-iron guard over the arch doors in the po¬ 
sition sbowu toy the curved dotted lines (Fig. 
6), is a great help in this respect. The sap 
should be skimmed ofteu, and the sides of the 
evaporator and the bottom of the last three 
eliauuels at the sirup end should be thoroughly 
washed for every day’s boiling. Sirup for 
market should weigh plump eleven pounds per 
gallon when cold, and should be strained 
through flannel while hot, and permitted to 
settle lo remove a fine, gray, fioathigsubstauce 
usually called lime or niter, but which proves 
on chemical analysis to lie nearly all silica. A 
flaunel strainer will arrest most of it and the 
rest will settle in cooling. Sugar is made by 
boiliug till it “pouts” like busty-pudding and 
hairs" from the end of the spoon, tt may 
then be stirred dry into grained sugar nearly 
white, or stirred a little aud run iuto cakes, or 
stirred till pretty still and “drained” in a tub 
or barrel with small holes iu the bottom. If 
a flannel cloth is wet and laid over the top of 
the cask several times at intervals of a few 
hours, the sugar will be whiter, and if made 
from the first, as above described, will be about 
as white as granulated sugur. Aud yet it has 
gone through no poisonous refining process 
and has no clay, glucose, copperas or sulphurie 
acid in it. The sap is colorless and perfectly 
pure, and it has been kept so. 
sap, or running to a tree in doubt. You can tell 
as far as you can 6ce the color of the cover, 
whether the sap in any bucket has been taken. 
If you forget to reverse, you make a trip for 
nothing, aud a boy of average laziness will soon 
quit that business, aud remember to reverse. 
It takes no extra time, and the covers warp less 
if reversed. This idea or device (different 
colors) occurred to the writer about eight years 
ago. He adopted it at once togreat advantage 
iu liis own large camp, aud patented it by pub¬ 
lishing it far and wide! Many sugar makers 
now use it with great satisfaction and advan¬ 
tage. 
A bit of history here will be instructive. Ver¬ 
mont sugar makers were in the habit of driv¬ 
ing a sharp, opeu, half-cylindrical spout into 
the soft bark just below the bit-hole in the tree. 
This was not firm enough to hold the pail of 
sap, aud so a nail or spike was driven into the 
tree just below the spout, and ears fastened to 
the buckets to bang them to this uail. Post’s 
Eureka, No. 1 (8ec Fig. 4£), w'as a great im¬ 
provement on this. It entered the hole and 
was held there by three flanges whieh did not 
stop the pores, as said above. It let the sap 
out through a small hole in the spout and pre¬ 
vented the wind from drying up the pores of 
the tree. But Instead of hanging the bucket 
on the spout ou notches (See Fig. 41, No. 2) 
made lo hold it, he attached a wire hook to 
i^uvnvi II wu tv null ut O 11IV UV. O 
below. Then a cover could not be laid 
on the bucket, for that would exclude the 
sap (See Fig. 13, b), and so he invented a tin 
cover with a hook to fasten above the spout, 
aud slant to the outer edge, as shown in the 
advertising columns of the Rorai.. But this 
does not exclude insects, flying snow, frost aud 
sun heat, which a two-cent wooden cover laid 
flat on top of the bucket (the No. 2 spout enter¬ 
ing below' the bueket rim) would accomplish. 
With hook aud spout aud tin cover one cannot 
revolve the bueket on the spout, as in Fig. 14, 
and empty it w ith uubent back, but must labor¬ 
iously take the bucketfrom the tree to empty it, 
iuto the gathering pail staudiug ou the ground. 
Of course, the Inventor aud maker will furnish 
hooks and patent covers as long as they are 
called for; but he would doubtless be quite as 
willing to furnish spouts w ithout the hook at 
the same price. Most of the best improvements 
in fixtures and methods originated in Vermont. 
The patent evaporators (Fig. G) and the mode 
of hanging the bueket on a notched spout by a 
hole punched just below the rim, and then cov¬ 
ering tlic bucket tight with a square W'ooden 
cover (See Fig. 11), belong to the West. And 
our Vermont friends will allow' us to poke a 
little good-natured fun at them on this point. 
We do not claim to “ know it ail,” but their 
modes of hanging and covering buckets remind 
us of the well known “wheat in one end of 
the hag and stone in the other, to balance it on 
the horse;” or of the Chinese tailor who made 
the pantaloons for the missionary, as desired, 
“ just like the old pair” sent for a pattern, not 
omitting the big patches in the seat! One of 
their best sugar-makers lately writes of the 
“ nails to hang the buekets ou !” We feel like 
saying: .“Throw away your nails and hooks 
and rings and bucket ears; use No. 2 instead 
of No. 1 Eureka, and bang and cover your 
buckets sensibly!" The sugar industry is, on 
the whole, iu a more advanced stage iu Ver¬ 
mont than here, but truly iu some points they 
are as slow to learn as we are iu others. Hav¬ 
ing had our laugh at them for following in this 
“rut," we are ready to take good-naturedly 
from them a retort on some “ rut” we doubt¬ 
less arc unconsciouslj- following. 
The Sugar-House ; Location, Fixtures, Etc. 
It should stand at the foot of a slope (See 
Fig. 5) so that the sap will run from a faucet 
in the rear of the gathering cask (a. Fig. 5) 
through a tiu conductor (b. Fig. 5. See also 
the funnel end of the same enlarged in Fig. 7) 
into the store-troughs e. and d. (Fig. 5), and 
thence iuto the heater and evaporator, as 
shown in Fig. G. In Ohio the slopes are usual¬ 
ly gradual, and it is better to place the store- 
troughs as in Fig. 5, to gain bight lor the gath¬ 
ering-cask to empty. The weather here, too, 
is so warm that it is best to store sap out-doors, 
so that the heat iu the house may not sour it. 
In most parts of Vermont the danger is from 
freezing at night; and large “store-tubs” usu¬ 
ally stand ou a platform inside the sugar-house. 
The hills there are so steep that the sap ean be 
ruu into these tubs easily. When store-troughs 
staud out-of-doors, each should have a tight, 
movable board cover to protect its contents 
from rain and snow, souring and freezing. 
The troughs may be connected by siphous. 
The sugar-house itself uoeds little descrip¬ 
tion besides that conveyed by Figs. 5 and G. 
It should have doors or windows on all sides 
if possible, to be opeu or shut according to 
wind and temperature; also a good ventila¬ 
tor in the roof (See Fig. 5) to aUow' the huge 
volume of steam to escape. Doors and win¬ 
dows to the wiudward should be kept closed, 
as a cool or indeed any wiud retards evapora¬ 
tion. A good shed adjoiuing aud full of fine, 
dry wood, is essential. Unsalable wood will 
do if fine aud thoroughly dry. Soft wood is 
quite as good as bard. Pine, hemlock, white- 
wood, bass-wood, soft and hard maple, ash, 
beech, hickory, is about the order of excellence. 
It is the flaiue that does the business. It inay 
seem strange, but three-foot wood ('fine and 
dry once more!) wiil keep an evaporator, 
4x15 feet in size, in a perfect foam, and heat 
the sap iu the beater, besides. The wood-shed 
and niauuer of storage are shown in Fig. 5. 
A narrow path should be left from the end 
door to door from shed to boiling room (See 
Fig. 5.). 
The Bolling Apparatus. 
for 1209 trees (buekets) is shown iu Fig. G, 
with open section and a part of the Interior 
of the sugar-house. It consists of a heater, 
d, and a Cook’s evaporator e. e, e, set on 
brick arch, h, with iron front and doors k, aud 
ash-pit 1, with iron grates above it lor the 
wood and coals to rest ou. Sap enters by the 
flexible rubber tube, b, from the store-trough 
a, through the regulator (the round top of 
which is seou at c) iuto the heateV, d, aud 
thence by a tin tube (represented by the dot¬ 
ted line g) iuto the evaporator at n, and flows 
back aud forth through a transverse ehauuel 
formed by “ crimps" or ledges, till it is drawn 
off at the faucet, in, as sirup finished for mar¬ 
ket, or sugar ready to cake or grain if desired. 
Usually, however, a small 3x4 foot pan ou a 
separate arch, is used for “sugaring off." 
The Healer, 
(d, Fig. G, shown enlarged in Fig. 10) works ou 
the principle of the tubular boiler. The part 
b, below the jag (See Fig 10), runs below the 
bottom of the evaporator, when iu position 
on the arch, aud sends the flame through the 
fifteen U-iucli tubes oneaeh side of b. (Fig. HI) 
surrounded with cool sap from the vat a, (Fig 
6). This robs the flame of heat which would 
otherwise escape up chimney, aud heats the 
the sap so that it enters the evaporator ready 
to boil. 
The Evaporators 
are patented and are manufactured iu Cin¬ 
cinnati 0., and iu St. Louis, and iu Bellows 
Falls Vt., and I think in a few other places. 
I give below the l orru of construction; not to 
help any one make one, but to show the prin¬ 
ciple on wtoak Hioy work, and the advantages 
they possess. Besides being protected by 
ns ,9. °' 
patent they require expensive machinery for 
their construction, and considering their ex¬ 
pense and their excellencies, are sold at a 
reasonable price. The chief principle involved 
is, that a shallow body of juice or sap moving 
slowly over alternate hot and cool spaces, 
will evaporate more rapidly and clarify bet¬ 
ter than in any other way. The structure of 
the pau too increases the heating surface ex¬ 
posed to the fire, by the very means used to 
create the transverse current. The bottom of 
the pan, or evaporator (Fig. 6), is divided cross¬ 
wise into spaces or channels six inches wide 
by a series of “crimps” open at the bottom to 
the fire. Fig. 9. is a longitudinal section of 
the bottom, or, in other words, a cross-section 
of the chanuela, aud “crimps,” or ridges. 
The channels are six iuches wide (including 
the width of “ crimps”), and the crimps rise 
about an inch and a half perpendicularly and 
are open at the bottom, a, lo the jire , thereby 
greatly increasing the heating surface. The 
bottom of the pan is the best heavy t^fl- 
vanized iron, crimped by machinery clear 
across in the form of Fig. 9. Then every 
second crimp on each side is cut and lapped 
from the side inward G iuches towards the mid¬ 
dle, (See Figs. G. and 8.),countersunk, riveted 
aud soldered, aud a cap soldered over the ex¬ 
posed end ol each, tight; and the bottom— 
crimps aud all—is drawn tight by bolts aud 
nuts into grooves cut in the woodeu sides to 
receive it. Fig. 8. is a simple (uot perspec¬ 
tive) ground plan of the finished bottom. The 
sap (or sorghum juice) enters at a (Fig. 8.), 
flows slowly along the channels past b, c, d, e, 
etc., as indicated by the direction of the darts, 
till it comes out at the faucet s, or t, (or m. 
Fig. 6) finished sirup. At first a few pailfuls 
of sap are drawn off at the faucet and turned 
back near the middle of thepan, till it comes to 
sirup in the three back channels, and then it 
remains so and ean be drawn off, a gallon at 
a time, every twenty minutes or so iu a 15-foot 
pan. There is no checking the tire to "sirup 
off,” which is a great hindrance with kettles 
or common pans. The man has nothing to do 
but fire up. skim and draw off sirup all day 
long. 
The “ Hegulator’' 
(c, Fig 6) feeds sap just as fast as it boils away. 
If it ceases to boil, sap ceases to flow. This 
trusty little monitor will never let the sap 
burn or overflow the evaporator, if properly 
“set,” no matter how large the fire or how 
long the absence of the fireman. It works as 
follows: a float, rising and fulling with the 
sap in the heater, works what for want of a 
better name I shall call a pair of jaws. As 
sap rises in the heater (and to the same level 
iu the evaporator) these jaws bite the soft rub¬ 
ber tube (b, Fig. G.) that supplies the sap. and 
cheek or stop the flow. When more sap is 
needed, they relax the bite aud admit it. When 
the boiliug is uniform, the feeding of the 
sap will be uniform. The “ regulator” is 
Guild’s patent, made in Bellows Falls, Vt., aud 
usually furnished with the evaporators, ft 
should in all cases go with them. The tin 
tube (dotted line o, g, u, Fig. G.) keeps the 
sap in the beater level with that in the front 
end of the evaporator, so that the regulator 
in the former regulates both. The shallower 
the sap, the faster it will boil. An inch and a 
quarter iu the front end, aud J inch in the 
back end are about as low. however, as it is 
safe to boil. If the evaporator is set level 
(as it should be when over 10 feet long) those 
will be about the depths at the two ends when 
the gates iu the partitions (See Fig. 6.) are 
opeu ; sometimes the flow needs to be checked 
by these gates, to allow the sirup to thicken 
a few moments. 
The Arch. 
The structure of this, and also its ash-pit, 
chimney, etc., are clearly and accurately 
showm iu the engraviug, and instructions for 
building them usually accompany the evapo¬ 
rators. A word only is necessary here. The 
last course of bricks but oue should be laid 
ou crosswise —masons call them headers. On 
this a single course should be laid on edge, so 
that the pan will project an inch or more ou 
each side, and leave au air-space to protect 
the wooden sides. This, with the two inches 
of the bricks' thickness, gives a space three 
inches wide, tin; whole length ou each side, not 
exposed to the flame below. This gives the 
cool spaces, mentioned above, for the sap to 
pass-over in its transverse flow, and deposit 
sediment and hold scum till it ean be removed, 
thus perfectly olarifying the sirup before it 
reaches the faucet, without using milk or eggs 
or auy foreign substance to poison it or injure 
its flavor. 
Such are, on the whole, iu my opinion the 
best arrangements, utensils and apparatus for 
making sirup and sugar. A few hints will 
follow in regard to working the “camp” or 
“ bush.” 
The Tappiug 
should begin as soon as decided sugar weather 
comes. In Ohio this is usually auy time after 
the middle of February ; iu Vermout, usually 
some time iu March. Thaw ing days and freez¬ 
ing nights make sap run best, but it must really 
tliaw in the shade to amount to ranch. The 
Cook (curve-lipped) bit is best for boring— 
half-inch size, and after three weeks or so the 
the nine-sixteenth size will freshen the hole 
nicely. No bit but Cook’s will do this last. 
All hardware men keep them. The best hand 
should do the boring, and especially the rim¬ 
ming with the nine-sixteenth bit. For ibis the 
bit must be held steady, true aud firm, so it will 
uot suck in too fast. In tappiug at first, care 
should be taken to select a thrifty spot in the tree, 
free from former holes, etc., aud where the 
tree will uot lean badly from or towards the 
bucket ; otherwise the buekets cannot be hung 
properly, (See Fig. 12). Large trees may have 
two buckets, and very large ones three, as iu 
Fig. 11. No bucket lias more than one 6pout ; 
it cannot be covered, aud one is enough auy- 
way. With the Eureka spout, the rough bark 
must be rossed off with a hatchet, but not to 
the quick. Care is needed to put large-sized 
buckets to large aud thrifty trees. An iuch 
and a half is deep enough to bore for Eureka 
