March, 1913 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
193 
how high she floats. He supplied me with a table of Aggers to 
make corrections, for he said the blamed thing rides higher as 
the sap is hotter. So when you are through with readin’ a 
thermometer and figurin’ and one thing and another, the sap is 
right if this reads somewhere around 35.6. But I am willing to 
bet any of them fellers that I can tell by the bubbles when the 
sap is right oftener than I could with this thing.” 
And even though I would ordinarily prefer the laboratory 
method and the useful hydrometer, I felt that where there were 
such men as Ray the 
process might better go 
without them. 
“You’ve got to get this 
pretty near right,” con¬ 
tinued Ray, “for if you 
can the stuff too thin, 
she’ll go sour, and if its 
too thick in a few days 
your can may be full of 
rock candy.” 
The boiling did not stop 
at suppertime for there 
had been a heavy run of 
sap, and as it grew 
dark the house still was 
wrapped in steam and shot 
strange beams of light 
from crevice and window. 
Ray started a fire outside 
between two great stones. 
When the logs had burned 
down to a glowing bed of 
coals, he swung a great 
iron kettle between the 
stones so that it might be 
easily tipped when neces¬ 
sary, and filled it with sap. The fire was kept hot but not allowed 
to flame up or smoke. 
“We used to have to do it all this way before the boss got that 
pan in there. I’ll admit the other works faster and it may give 
you better sirup and sugar, but I hate to give up the outside boil¬ 
ing. Somehow the sap season don’t seem real without it.” 
The sap was soon boiling, and as it browned into the proper 
sugar color, he added a little fresh sap every now and then “to 
keep it clear.” 
We sat around the fire eating a frugal meal, but with great 
relish. Ray added eggs that he boiled in the sap and a kind of 
candy white and sticky that he called “jackwax.” He filled a 
pan with snow and with a ladle poured a little of the boiling 
mixture over it. It congealed almost at once, and Ray turning it 
on the tines of an old iron fork, handed it to me. 
“I guess this jackwax ought to beat any store stuff you must 
have been getting,” he remarked. And it surely did. 
The boiling was continued, as Ray wished to try the first 
“sugaring-off.” Since the sap seemed to grow still thicker, Ray 
took a great spoon and began stirring vigorously. More foam 
appeared to gather than in the evaporator, and it was skimmed 
off from time to time. Once he added a little sweet lard and the 
surface seemed to be less 
disturbed. He tested the 
liquid occasionally on the 
snow, and examined it 
critically. At last he said 
conclusively, “She’s done,”" 
and poured the contents 
into some pans that he had 
brought and set us each to- 
stirring them rapidly. The 
material was quite thick as 
he poured, and I saw that 
in the pan I was stirring the 
liquid turned rapidly, sug¬ 
aring almost to the con¬ 
sistency of pulled taffy. I 
was advised to keep on- 
stirring, and finally when 
the pan had been set in the 
snow I found that it had 
changed into creamy maple 
sugar. 
“Most of this we do in 
the kitchen after the sirup 
is boiling, but this sort of 
helps to find out what kind 
of sugar we’re goin’ to get. 
Sometimes it’s good and white and other times sort of mushy in 
the center. But it looks good this year. Some folks can all their 
supply in sirup and some cake it all in sugar. That you have been 
using all winter was in cakes. It takes less room to store it and 
you can melt it up easily when you want the sirup.” 
When we had finished the operation of “sugaring-off” I noticed 
that with nightfall it had grown much colder. Indeed, it was 
again freezing weather, for the steaming drops from the roof 
of the camp had frozen into little icicles. 
I disappointedly remarked, “I suppose this ends the “sugaring- 
off.” 
“Not on your life it don’t,” was Ray’s enthusiastic reply. “It 
(Continued on page 230) 
The sled, driven over a network of roads, saved distance in carrying the sap 
The receiving tank was fastened on a broad-runnered sled, and fitted with a funnel-like opening with a strainer to keep out twigs and leaves 
