60 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February. 
Home Supplies of Food. 
— -O-- 
How to secure and utilize supplies for the 
table is the theme for discussion in city and 
country, and must become more important 
a£ our population increases. With our soil 
and climate, our rural population ought to 
be the best fed people in the country. This 
is notably not the case. The best tables are 
spread in our cities and villages, and the 
rural population, with abundant means of 
luxurious living, have a scanty variety of 
food. In the older States there has been im¬ 
provement, but it falls far short of that 
variety and excellence which the highest 
vigor of body and mind demands. Even 
now we need not travel far from the rail¬ 
road to find large districts where there is no 
market or butcher’s cart, and the traditional 
“ hog and hominy,” or salt junk and potatoes, 
is the staple food the year round. With the 
advantages which the farmer has, there is no 
apology for this low scale of living. He is 
by profession a producer of food, and ought 
to advertise his business by the excellent 
quality of the food displayed upon his table. 
Cured meats are well enough in their place, 
but we want to add to our faith in these, 
the virtues of a long list of vegetables, the 
knowledge of a still larger list of fruits, and 
the temperate enjoyment of their abundance 
the year round. While the farm or planta¬ 
tion must be given to the production of sta¬ 
ple crops for the raising of money, the gar¬ 
den and fruit yard should be enlarged for 
the express purpose of raising the tone of 
health and enjoyment in the family. Paul 
was orthodox upon this subject when lie 
taught : “ But if any provide not for his 
own, and specially for those of his own 
house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse 
than an infidel.” There is much infidelity of 
this sort lurking in the shadow of our rural 
sanctuaries. It takes but little land to have 
trees and shrubs pleasant to the sight, and 
good for food, beyond all the reasonable 
wants of a family. On a single acre, well 
tilled and cared for, all the better sorts of 
fruits and vegetables adapted to the climate 
may be grown in sufficient abundance to 
give variety to the table every day in the 
year. Apples are good, but they may be 
supplemented by pears, peaches, plums, 
apricots, and cherries of the early and late 
varieties. The currant is an admirable mid¬ 
summer fruit, but strawberries, raspberries, 
blackberries, and gooseberries are quite as 
easily raised. Wild grapes are better than 
nothing, but Concords and Delawares are 
very much better, and will mature good 
crops with very little care. Potatoes and 
turnips are wholesome diet, but we can add 
to them with profit, asparagus, lettuce, cau¬ 
liflower, squashes, tomatoes, egg-plant, and 
a long paying list of vegetables. Ignorance 
of their cultivation is no apology for the 
absence of these fruits and vegetables about 
a farmer’s home. It only needs a little enter¬ 
prise to add largely to our home supplies of 
food. Now is a good time to make up a list 
of trees for planting, and to buy seeds. 
Some very Early l*ot!itoe<>i.—If one 
cares to try how early he can get a small crop 
of potatoes, he should begin at once. We say 
“a small crop,” as with Bermuda so near, we 
doubt if this enterprise would pay commer¬ 
cially. Select the seed potatoes of an early va¬ 
riety of moderate size, as nearly alike as pos¬ 
sible, and stack them in a shallow box—or 
boxes. The potatoes should be stacked in regu¬ 
larly, placing the seed-end uppermost, as 
many as the box will hold. Set the box at a 
sunny window and give it all the light pos¬ 
sible, and in a fairly warm room. Sprouts 
will soon appear, but instead of being long 
and slender, as are those formed in a shady 
place, they will be short, thick, and stubby. 
Being deprived of moisture they make but 
little growth, but when planted in the open 
ground, are ready to grow at once. They 
should be planted as early as seems safe. It 
will be well to nail boards together at right 
angles, like an eaves-trough, and place them 
along the rows; in case a frost is feared 
these sheds may be turned over the vines to 
protect them. Straw covering will answer. 
Scraping Trees. 
Do we approve of scraping Trees ? asks a 
friend of ours. Certainly we do, provided 
they need it, and one can rarely find an old 
tree that does not. Aside from the fact 
that the removal of the old bark-scales 
breaks up a refuge for various insects, in¬ 
cluding the Woolly-aphis, the increased 
beauty of the tree repays the trouble. There 
are scrapers made for the purpose; one of 
these has a triangular blade, another a long 
blade, with one flat and another slightly 
concave edge. An old hoe is quite as good a 
tool as any ; cut off the handle to about 18 
inches, and do not grind the blade too sharp, 
as a cutting implement is not needed—only a 
scraper. On a very old trunk some force may 
be needed to detach the scales that are partly 
loose, but on young trees be careful not to 
wound the healthy bark. The scraping may 
be done now, next month, or later. When 
there comes a moist drizzly spell, go over the 
Bcraped bark with good soft soap, made thin 
enough with water to apply with a brush. 
Paint over a thick coat of this soap and leave 
the rest to the rains. Later in the season 
the trees will appear as if furnished with 
mahogany trunks. 
A Wood-Rack. 
Mr. R. L. Smith writes us : Hauling logs to 
mill is hard work, but the labor can be lessen¬ 
ed to some extent, if the right means are em¬ 
ployed. During the past winter we have used 
to our satisfaction a wood-rack on a pair of 
bobs. The rack should be 12 feet long, and 
of the right width to fit in the bolsters. (Such 
a rack will also fit a wagon.) It is made of 
2-inch elm plank. Bolt across each end two 
cleats of hard-wood, one on the upper side, 
and one on the under, then on top of the 
rack, on each side, bolt a hard-wood 2 by 2-J- 
inch scantling. If this rack is wanted for 
drawing cord-wood or posts, bore nine 2-inch 
holes on each side of the rack, 1£ inch from 
the side-pieces. The railing is a support for 
the stakes against which they lean. By bor¬ 
ing the holes the right distance apart, one 
can draw three lengths of cord-wood or two 
of posts. The stakes should be of tough 
wood, and good size. A saddle, with three 
notches, should be fitted over each bolster 
on the rack.—Such racks are easily made. 
The Maple Tree and its Sugar. 
Although the maple product amounts to- 
only about two per cent of the entire con¬ 
sumption of sugar in this country, it is yet 
an important item. The recent census fig¬ 
ures are not yet made up, but the previous 
census reported some thirty million pounds, 
of which 30 per cent was credited to Verniont;: 
24*/ 4 per cent to New York ; 12 to Ohio 
6 to Indiana; 2^ to the Virginias; If to 
Wisconsin (since largely increased), and l 1 /* 
per cent to Massachusetts. This product is 
mainly obtained from the Sugar Maple (Acer- 
saccharinum), also called the Rock Maple,, 
which grows chiefly in the Northern and 
Middle States east of the Mississippi River. 
The sugar maple is a most valuable tree, not 
only for its sugar product, but as fuel it ap¬ 
proaches hickory, and is the best of. all. 
woods for charcoal. Its hardness and fre¬ 
quently curled grain admirably adapt it to 
cabinet work. It is also a beautiful shade 
tree for the street border, and for some fields, 
and lawns. A sugar maple grove adds greatly 
to the value of any farm, and multitudes of 
farmers should plant one for their own enjoy¬ 
ment in later years, and for their children. 
Sugar making in some of its phases is 
shown on the page opposite. The saccha¬ 
rine matter is stored in the tree in the form, 
of insoluble starch, which is changed to- 
soluble sugar when the sap flows after the 
winter’s frost, and is by it distributed to the 
twigs, and to the leaves v'hen they develop, 
and to all parts of the tree where growth is 
to be made. The best flow of sap is on a 
warm day following a freezing night. In¬ 
serting a tube near the base arrests and draws 
off a portion of the circulating sap. This, 
caught in rude wooden troughs, or in pails- 
or buckets, is boiled down sufficiently to drive 
off a large portion of the water. The syrup is 
left to cool, and the sugar crystallizes, differ¬ 
ing from the Southern cane sugar only in its. 
peculiarly pleasant flavor, which is almost- 
universally liked, and gives it a ready sale. 
Any boiling vessel will answer, from an 
iron pot, or kettle on the stove, for a small 
quantity, up to the immense caldron, set on 
stone, or brick masonry, or hung on a pole, 
supported by stakes, with a fire built around 
it on the bare ground. The improved boil¬ 
ers are shallow 7 pans having a large evapor¬ 
ating surface. One of these is shown in the 
center of the engraving. Successive por¬ 
tions of fresh sap are added until there is 
sufficient concentrated to “ sugar off.” The 
fire is then slackened, and the syrup con¬ 
stantly stirred to prevent its burning. When 
so thick that a little of it, cooled on a spoon, 
or the end of a stick, takes a bard waxy 
form, a little brittle, the fire is removed, and 
the crystallizing takes place on cooling. If 
the sap has not been kept perfectly clean, 
the boiled syrup is strained through a thick 
linen cloth before the final concentration. 
As ordinarily made, maple sugar is quite 
brown. If the flowing sap is collected in 
clean covered vessels, and no leaves, or dust, 
or other foreign substances are allowed to get 
into it through the entire process, the sugar 
will be almost as white as the common “ re¬ 
fined ” cane product. Hal f-inch augur holes in 
the trees, with galvanized-iron spouts to fit, 
—one for small trees, and two or three for- 
large trees,—are much preferable to wooden, 
spouts, as they injure the tree far less. 
