Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1877-03-21
Making Maple Sugar.


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 twigs complained
to the branches; the branches told the
trunks, and the trunks carried 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 rootlets 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 one kind of food, the
pines another, the birches another, and
for each the rootlets pick out just the
| right kind from the same ground. AS
fast the rootlets gathered the food,
they sent it up to the branches-a very
delicate, sweet drink; and still they
sent more and more, the little twigs
| always taking the freshest and sending
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 afterward green for
hot summer. They were merry plan
ming their new wardrobes, | assure you;
you could have heard it if you had the
right kind of ears.
oo,,o l.
barn chores.
81 say, wife, it's growing warm
Shouldn't wonder if the sap would run
such weather as this; guess l must tap
one tree and see."
So Farmer CHEEKY took his auger
and went out into the maple orchard.
1t didn't take him long to make little
hole in one Of the tree-trunks, and put
In little spout; nor was it many min
utes before drop by drop came the sap.
"Ah! that's fine p said Farmer
CHEEKY, and he went home in haste.
The next we saw of him, he was driving
out into the orchard with load of one
hundred and fifty clean, bright, tin
sap-buckets and one hundred and fifty
fresh little troughs. Then, in each one
of his hundred and fifty maple trees he
bored hole and put 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 collect the
sap that had run out. He knew that
one reason why maple sugar is some
times 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 if
any water gets in, the sap must be
boiled longer to made sugar of it, and
the longer it is boiled the darker it
grows; so, if he saw storm coming,
be collected 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 pailfuls,-a 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 he poured his
sap, stirring it while it boiled almost all
day long. When he drew it off, such
beautiful clear strip I don't believe
you ever saw. This he did two or three
times each week for nearly d month;
after that, the sap was not SIS good for
people to use, though just what the
little twigs needed as they grew older.
Some of his sirup 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 scolloped tins,
to harden into the round cakes YOU
like SO much; and some of it MS little
grandchildren waxed On snow
You don't know how that is?
Well, May packed a 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
Cd14AON IL w N1dIlupd OuGCIy, VINO
dropped upon their snow spoonful of
hot sirup here and there. The little
thin, waxy sheets of suddenly cooled
strip, make an excellent luncheon; and
the children tugged their pan of snow
around to give every one taste, de-
claring that sugar season" was the
very best time in the year.-St. Nicholas
for March.
What Some '76 Boys and Girls Did.
From the Christian Union.
"There comes Lify, running up the
hill as though the red-coats were after
him. He never troubled himself to
hurry like that before. What is the
matter ?"
In three minutes-the time it took
the little fellow to get back his voice
the explanation came.
"Pve-just = come - from the
ferry-and what do-you supposed
heard there uncle? Ed Tanning,
Josh Brockway, and some of those
other tories down at Mud Hook, were