What is “ Pure ” Maple Sugar 
Enclosed find extract from a letter just received from 
a physician near Boston. Is this a true statement? Per¬ 
haps it is scientifically true, but I think his taste for 
maple sugar needs educating. We know that the dark, 
strong maple sugar will go farther in flavoring, as those 
who use it for that purpose—tobacco manufacturers and 
others—know, but is the flavor of that kind as good? We 
in the maple sugar country think not. I have eaten the 
very lightest, most delicate flavored maple, and to my 
palate it is much to be preferred. The extract, which 
made us laugh, is as follows: 
"I suppose you know that so far as taste goes, the 
dark sugar is better than the light. As a matter of 
fact, all the taste in maple sugar is due to impurities, 
which are not removed. To put it another way, if 
maple sugar was refined the way cane sugar is, there 
would be no taste to it at all except the sweet.” a. 
Vermont. 
APLE sugar, if refined to a state of absolute 
purity, becomes identical with cane sugar, and 
indistinguishable from it by any known test. To 
this extent, the last statement in the quotation is 
correct. The value of maple sugar, above other 
sugars, lies wholly in its delicious, so-called maple 
flavor. This flavor results from the presence of an 
exceedingly delicate, slightly volatile essence, which 
chemists have, as yet. been unable to separate and 
identify. If this essence be classed as an impurity, 
the second statement is also correct. In the first 
statement the writer may be correct if he refers to a 
bleached or drained maple sugar, and means that 
the dark sugar has a stronger and more pronounced 
flavor. But, if he refers to a high-grade maple sugar, 
possessed of a light color by reason of superior 
methods of manufacture, he is just as much mistaken 
as though he had said that a Big Tom pumpkin has 
a better flavor than a Rocky Ford melon. 
Maple sap, as it comes from the trees, contains a 
trace of this essence, and is as clear as the purest 
water, and, could it be economically concentrated, 
immediately, and without the application of heat, the 
resulting syrup would be transparent, and the sugar 
would be perfectly white, except possibly for a very 
slight creamy tinge, while the flavor would exceed, 
in delicacy and deliciousness, any known substance. 
This is known as the true maple flavor. But, in the 
process of evaporation, more or less caramel, which 
is nothing more or less than burned sugar, is formed, 
and this, to a greater or less extent, darkens the. 
color and impairs the flavor. But more than this. 
Maple sap is even more susceptible to bacterial 
action than milk, and various kinds of bacteria be¬ 
gin their work immediately after the sap leaves the 
tree, and continue to'increase and defile the sap 
until it is concentrated and hermetically sealed. 
'These bacteria and their products not only blacken 
the sugar but they still farther impair, and often en¬ 
tirely overpower and obliterate the true maple flavor. 
Among the uninitiated this rank flavor 
is often regarded as an indication of 
the purity and high quality of maple 
goods. 
Now if a man prefers this rank 
flavor he has a perfect right to his 
choice. Some men like cheese that is 
full of skippers, and I have seen 
people who enjoyed the flavor of 
strong, rancid butter. But the civil¬ 
ized stomach will greatly prefer the 
flavor of a high-grade, light-colored 
maple sugar to that of boiled bac¬ 
terial organisms. Nevertheless, this 
product has its uses. When melted 
together with the right proportions 
of water and granulated sugar, a 
light-colored syrup closely resembling 
genuine high-grade maple syrup re¬ 
sult';. This is known as a “blend.” 
and large quantities are manufactured 
and sold under various names, and. 
possibly, in some instances, as genu¬ 
ine maple syrup. If the sugar is of 
too low a grade to be used for this 
purpose much of it is used to improve 
the flavor of certain brands of plug 
tobacco, and most anything will answer for that 
purpose. And it may sound strange, nevertheless it 
is true, that the greater part of the maple sugar that 
is of too low a grade to be used for flavoring tobacco 
is used in the manufacture of chocolate cakes. 
C. O. ORMSBEE. 
Utilizing the Spring 
NOTICE recently in different farm journals in¬ 
quiries in regard to springs, and the idea still 
seems to prevail that a pit or reservoir must be dug 
right where the water comes to the surface. This 
spot may be in the middle of a cultivated field, or in 
some isolated place. The spring is there because the 
underground stream or sheet of water has met 
The RU R AL ME W-YO RKER 
a barrier to its further course below and is 
forced to the surface. If it were not for this barrier 
the spring would be rods or perhaps miles in some 
other direction. My practice has been to put this 
water by gravity into the buildings if possible; if 
not, locate a reservoir as near as possible to where 
it is wanted, and by some power, generally a small 
engine, force the water lift to where it can be used 
in the buildings. A one-incli iron pipe is large 
enough to carry the water for a distance of 2,000 feet 
or more from the spring to the reservoir. As to the 
Concrete Marker Over Pipe Connection at Spring 
Fig. 234 
work at the spring end. dig a trench from the reser¬ 
voir right up and through the spring, and if there 
lie more than one spring run a branch trench through 
these, all converging at one point, and that in the 
hard ground beyond where the spring broke through 
the surface. There dig a pit in tne trench large 
enough to take in a 16 or lS-in. sewer pipe having a 
T opening on one side toward the spring. This 
length of service pipe stands upright, and the tiles, 
generally 8-in., that are laid in the trench or trenches 
through the spring connect with this T opening. 
This provides a space or slit well below the bottom 
of the pipe or tile line. This is an insurance against 
sediment settling into the iron pipe. The bottom of 
this silt well must be made watertight by using 
cement. The small opening for the iron service pipe 
to the reservoir is just opposite where the tiles 
comes up with the T. 
As the water at some seasons of the year will 
collect in this sewer pipe reservoir faster than 
the one-inch pipe can use it, in our plan is arranged 
for near or at the top by making an opening and con¬ 
necting a line of 3-in. tile, this to join some drainage 
ditch or some other convenient outlet. All these 
connections with the upright length of sewer pipe 
are made watertight with cement, and a screen is 
placed over the end of the iron pipe entering the 
little underground reservoir. If the bottom of the 
” 875 
trenches through the spring are soft it is better to 
place a 3-in. layer of cinders or gravel in these bot¬ 
toms before laying the tile, and if necessary place a 
strip of board (cypress if possible) over the cinders 
to lay the tile on. Then fill over all the tile where 
they cross the spring with a foot or more of cinders 
or gravel. When this is properly done all the water 
that enters the tiles and pipes is filtered, and the 
silt well is simply an insurance. Place a perfectly 
watertight cover over the top of that sewer pipe res¬ 
ervoir and back-fill all the. trenches, level with the 
surface, and right over the little sewer pipe under¬ 
ground reservoir place a cement slab or marker of 
some sort to remember the post by, then go ahead 
and plow and cultivate the whole field just as if the 
spring had never existed. I notice one man advises 
to “clean out the spring” so that the stock can get 
pure water. A spring that has to be kept dug out 
is always foul; it cannot be otherwise, for the stock 
is bound to run through it and often to leave their 
droppings right at the source of the water supply. 
A proper harnessing of the spring is an interesting 
bit of work, and the writer has had more satisfac¬ 
tory experience in this than in breaking colts to the 
harness. n. E. cox. 
New York 
Cultivating and Fertilizing Vineyards 
The vineyards around here, mainly the old vineyards, 
do not grow as they did, say 15 years ago. I have pur¬ 
chased one this Spring : ground is good; would grow any 
kind of garden crop. The practice is to plow away from 
vines in May, and plow back again any time later; in 
.Tune perhaps. I would like to experiment on them with 
lime or fertilizer, and I thought Alsike clover would do 
the trick. I do not know much about Crimson clover. 
Would I be liable to get a catch after plowing back? 
Would you sow right after spring-tooth harrow. and if 
you put lime or fertilizer on, when would you apply it? 
Do not advise anv costly process; can’t afford it. 
Bluff Point, N. Y. J. w. P. 
UR experiments that were begun five years ago 
in the Keuka Lake section seem to indicate that 
the vineyards benefit by Cummer tillage. In other 
words, between the plowing in early Spring and the 
plowing back a considerable time elapses, during 
which the soil is given rather frequent cultivation, 
depending largely upon the frequency of rainfall. 
About the middle to the last of July the plowing 
back is done and this is followed by a dragging. 
Directly after the soil is thus fitted it is seeded to a 
green manure crop, and of all those that we have 
grown the rye and Hairy vetch combination has 
proven the best adapted fo* the hillside soils in the 
vicinity of Urbana. Rye alone is a very desirable 
crop to grow for turning under when the cost of 
vetch seed is high. Our experiences lead us to the 
conclusion that it is good practice for 
the vineyardist to grow his own vetch 
and rye seed. This has been done 
successfully for the past three sea¬ 
sons. it having been possible to grow 
sufficient seed to sow about 15 acres 
annually from the seed harvested 
from 1 Vj acres. Not only has it been 
possible to obtain this quantity of 
seed, but in addition we have secured 
a volunteer seeding for next year 
from the s«od that shattered during 
the cuttim and handling. 
While the clovers are very desirable 
as green manure crops generally, our 
experiences indicate that they require 
a considerably longer period in the 
Spring to reach an amount of growth 
that is comparable with the vetch and 
rye. Crimson clover occasionally 
comes through the Winter in the 
Keuka region, but no one can foretell 
just when this is to happen. It 
probably fails in three out of five 
seasons. 
Ten years’ experience with the use 
of lime in the vineyard indicates that 
it has not affected favorably the growth of the vine, 
nor has it influenced! fruit production. Its use 
probably has affected in some degree the growth of 
clover, while the use of unslaked lime has in some 
measure improved the texture of the soil. 
Further 10 years’ results at Fredonia and five 
years’ tests at Urbana show conclusively that the 
use of readily available nitrogen has proven profit¬ 
able. The use of 300 lbs. of acid phosphate to the acre 
has also had a marked influence upon the growth of 
the rye and vetch. The nitrogen used at Urbana has 
been in the form of nitrate of soda at the rate of 
250 lbs. per acre. Even at present prices this form 
of nitrogen is just as cheap as that bought in any 
other form. 
To sum up, it is suggested that 300 lbs. of acid 
Tubs Supplied with I Voter from a Harnessed Spring. Fig. 235 
