The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1877-03-21

were appointed. Fred Douglass was con-
firmed as Marshal Tor the District of Column
bia and the Senate adjourned sine die.
Making Maple Sugar.
A little warm breeze crept through
Farmer Cherry's maple forest, awoke
the trees from their long, long sleep,
and they all began to shake hands and
nod toward each other, whispering :
"Good Good! Here comes the
Spring!'
Soon the warm air made them feel
thirsty and faint; the tiny twigs CON-
planned to the branches the branches
told the trunks, and the trunks car.
ried the news down to the roots.
Maple: trees keep all their provisions in
an underground cellar so the roots
finding that, sure enough, the ground
was no longer frozen and hard, began
to feel about, and sent out little root
lets that gathered up the good things,
just the kinds they. knew maple
twigs loved best. Doesn't it seem
funny that they can tell The naples
take ono kind of food, the pines an.
other, the birches another, and for
each the ro0tlets pick out just the
right kind from the same ground. AS
fast as the rootlets gathered the food,
they sent it up to the branches very
delicate, sweet drink and still they
sent more and more, the little twigs
always taking the freshest, and send
ing back what was left over. The
branches felt very much revived as
they were fed, grew very social, and
began to tell of the pretty red dresses
they would put on before long; red
for the cool spring days, and AFTER
ward green for the hot summer. They
were merry planning their new ward.
robes, assure you you could have
heard it if you had the right kind of
ears.
Farmer CHEEKY came in from his
barn chores.
II say, wife, it's growing warm
shouldn't wonder if the sap would run
such weather as this; guess must tap
one tree and see.' y
So Farmer CHEEKY took his auger
and went oat into the maple orchard.
It didn't take him long to make "a lit
tie hole in one of the tree trunks, and
put in little spout nor was it many
minutes before drop by drop the sap
came.
"Ah! that's fine!'' said Farmer
CHEEKY, and he went home in haste.
The next we saw of him, he was driv.
ing out into the orchard with load of
$50 clean, bright, tin sap-buckets and
$50 fresh little troughs. Then in each
of his one hundred and fifty maple
trees he bored a hole and put a trough
in and bucket beneath to catch the
sap as it came dropping out.
''Didn't it starve the poor little
branches waiting for their food?''
Oh, no! There was enough for them
left, all they needed to keep them
very fresh and make them grow. So
many many pailfuls ran up and down
every day that the one Farmer CHEEKY
took would hardly be missed.
Every morning and night for two or
three weeks, the good farmer might
be seen with his great tank, clean as
clean could be, driving around to COL
lect the sap that had run out. He
knew that one reason why maple sugar
is sometimes dark colored is because
the pals and tanks that hold the sap
are not washed thoroughly; so he took
great pains with his. He knew, too,
that it any water gets in, the sap must
be boiled longer to make sugar and the
longer it is boiled the darker it grows;
so if he saw storm coming, he col.
lected all the sap, and turned the
buckets upside down till the rain was
over.
Farmer CHEEKY had a great iron pan,
which would hold, oh, don't dare tell
you how many pailfulls, great, great
many; and this very large pan rested
on some stone posts about two feet
from the ground. Under this he built
fire, and into it poured his sap, stir.
ring it while it boiled almost all day
long. When he drew it of, such beau
tiful clear strip I don't believe you
ever saw. This he did two or three
times each week for nearly month;
after that, the sap was not as good for
people to use, though just what the
little twigs needed as they grew older.
Some OF his syrup the farmer put up
in cans to send to the cities; some of
it he boiled more and more, so that it
would be sugar when cooled. Then
he poured it into pretty scoiloped tins,
to harden into the round cakes you
like so much and some of it his lit.
tie grandchildren waXed on snow.
You don't know now that is 2"
Well, May packed painful Of snow
just as hard as she could crowd it in
then she smoothed off the top as even
as a marble table, and she and Sally
carried it to Grandpa CHEEKY, who
dropped upon their snow a spoonful
Of the hot syrup here and there. The
little thin, waxy sheets of suddenly
cooled syrup, picked up with u forh
! and oatnn oe soon 40 cOn1 mad q an pY