Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1874-04-24

EAq., OF Cabot.
When properly managed sugar making is
a very pleasant and profitable business. 1t
occurs at season of the year when help is
plenty, and other farm operations cannot
pro6tably be carried on. Although the art
of making sugar from our common rock ma
pie originated, according to the American
Cyclopedia, in 1852, it seems to have been
one of the lost arts, at least it cannot prop
erly be called ons of the fine arts, Judging
from the samples we often see at cur stores.
While here and there persons displayed skill
and taste in producing superior article OF
sugar before the introduction Of pans, it did
not extend to the masses, and to-day the
average quality Of the maple sugar made in
Vermont shows a want Of care and skill in
its manufacture perfectly inexcusable.
Our fathers were poor, aud IN a new
country, with many ways to use money and
few chances to get it; aud yet they did
vastly better considering their circumstances,
even with their sap-troughs and old kettles,
than the average sugar maker of to-day ;
then, again, while consumers objected to eat
ing more than their allotted peck Of dirt
they we're quite willing to take it all IN
their sugar. They regarded white, clean
sugar as being sduterated, and called for
dark eolored real maple sugar that had a
"tangn to it. But civilization has advanced,
people have become more discriminating
about their food, consumers have learned
that maple sugar may he white aud clean
and Of a mild, pleasant favor quite in con.
trast with the old strong and smarty taste
The supply of A No. ! sugar does not
keep pace with the demand. Each year
shows a wider margin in prices between the
best aud poorest. Probably there is no arti'
Gle Of product or manufacture connected with
farming less likely to be affected by strin
gency in the money market than good maple
sugar. 1t contributes alike to the luxuries
of the rich and the necessities of the poor
II adds very materially to the productive
industry Of the state, and may be made a
constantly y-increasing source of wealth.
With u view to a full understanding o
any subject it is well To learn the opinions
and practices of persons who are best ac
quainted with it. Let us suppose a number
Of farmers get together for social intercourse
and mutal improvement; one Of the number
who believes in book farming, but is not q
practical sugar maker, inquiries for the bes
standard work on sugar making Alter SOME
hesitation one of the number, not wishing tC
appear ignorant, replies, the New American
Cyclopedia. He gets it and reads as fol-
lows: At the proper season, usually il
February and March, when the days begir
to grow warm and the nights are frosty, th'
sugar makers resort to the woods, takln!
with them the few utensils they require, al
large iron kettles, three-fourths inch Rugers
casks, buckets, and axes. They coustrue
rough sheds over the boiling places, and i
need be others for their own accommodation
Small open troughs followed out Of the pine
have been already prepared and distributed
near the trees. With the augers they bore
two holes 10 each tree few inches apart
about two feet above the ground, taking carr
10 penetrate not more than half an inch int
the white wood Into the holes they intro
duce split pieces of elder, from which thu
pith is removed to make channel for th'
sap to flow through this it gradually drip
aud collects in the trough placed below u
receive it, The trOughs as they fill ar
taken to the camp, aud the juice Is pouret
into casks to be transferred to the kettles
The boiling is actively kept up, and th
scum which rises is removed more sap !