T 9 2 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
March, 1913 
Working from tree to tree the receiving buckets were emptied into pecu¬ 
liar carrying pails broader at the bottom than at the top 
One morning ice was found in the pails. This was thrown away, but 
what sap remained unfrozen was retained 
the roadway and was in touch with every section, and since we 
worked downward from the crest of the ridge it was driven 
below us, and we had but a few steps to carry the full buckets. 
Even the horses seemed to be alive to spring’s approach and 
worked well, but when the sled was 
stopped, greedily reached for every 
green twig that rose through the 
snow. In some places where the sled 
had to go the snow had completely 
melted, but the broad runners slid eas¬ 
ily over the slippery leaves and wet 
ground. When the tank was full it 
was driven down to the back of the 
boiling house and its outlet connected 
with a pipe leading to a great storage 
tank within the camp and the contents 
allowed to flow down. By evening 
the buckets had all been emptied, and 
those that had been seen to first, had 
been emptied a second time, but in 
the early afternoon the run had been 
sufficient to start boiling, and I 
changed my occupation by going into 
the sap house and helping at the 
evaporator. 
Between the walls of the fire com¬ 
partment logs had been stacked and a 
roaring fire was heating the pan. The sap ran from the storage 
tank trickling a zigzag course from one compartment to another, 
but its flow was controlled so that in each section there was a 
little more than an inch depth of sap. The whole pan seemed to 
be aboil and steaming, and the compartments showed very dif¬ 
ferent colors. Where the sap entered it was clear, but by the 
time it had reached the last section it was dark and sirupy. One 
man with what looked like a dust pan with a perforated bottom 
skimmed off a brownish froth that 
gathered. 
Ray looked in the last compartment 
shortly after the pan had been boil¬ 
ing and seemed to be critically testing 
the bubbles as they rose to the surface. 
In a little while he remarked, “Guess 
she’s about doneand pulling be¬ 
neath the spigot a large milk can 
fitted with a wide funnel top over 
which was Stretched a piece of felt as 
a strainer, let the sirup drain off. 
So the process continued. A con¬ 
stant supply of sap found its way into 
the evaporator, worked its way left- 
right down the pan, getting thicker 
and heavier as it progressed, until at 
regular intervals it was drawn off as 
sirup. I wondered again at the knowl¬ 
edge that could tell the finished sap, 
for I knew that it must be of standard 
weight and density. 
“Some tells one way, some another,” 
said Ray. “The feller from the Experiment Station told us to 
get this little glass thing to test it.” He showed me what was 
familiar at once, a Baume hydrometer. “You draw off some sap 
into a tall jar, fill it full to the brim and put this thing in and see 
