Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1877-03-01
Making Maple Sugar.

A little warm breeze crept through
Farmer Cheery's maple forest, awOkt
the trees from their long, long sleep
and they all began to shake hands and
nod toward each other, whispering
i'sGOod! Good! Here comes the Spring.!
Soon the wGrm air made them fee
thirsty and faint; the tiny twigs com
[plalned to the branches; the branche:
told the trunks, and the trunks carried
/ the news down to the roots. Maple
trees keep all their provisions in an un
background cellar; SO the roots finding
that, sure enough, the ground Was nc
jionger frozen and hard, began tO. fee
iabout, and sent out little r0otleis thai
gathered up the good things,-just the
kinds they knew maple twigs loved
best. Doesn't 1t seem funny that they
can tell? The naples take one kind o.
food, the pines anl ther, the bircnes an
other, and for each the rOotlets pick
out just the right kind from the same
ground. As fast as the rootlets gather
ed the food, they sent it up to the
branches-a very delicate, sweet drink
and still they sent 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 fol
the cool spring days, and aiterward
green for the hot summer. They were
merry planning their new wardrobes,
/ assure you; you could have heard il
| if you had had the right kind of ears.
1 Ia in
barn chores.
Il 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 augur
and went out into the maple orchard.
1t didn't take him long to make lit
tie hole in one of the tree-trunks, and
put in little spout; nor was it many
minutes before drop by drop came the
sap.
sAh! that's finep said Farmer CHEEKY,
and he went home in haste. The next
we saw of him, he was driving out in
to the orchard with load OF one hum
dred and fifty clean, bright, tin sap
buckets and one hundred and fifty fresh
little troughs. Then, in each one OF
his hundred and fifty mapie-trees he
bored hole and put q trough in, and a
bucket beneath to catch the sap as it
came dropping out. =
Didn't il starve the poor little BRAN
ches waiting for their fOUd?'
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 former 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 ifI
any water gets in, the sap must be
boiled longer to make sugar of it and
the longer it Is, boiled the darker it'll
grows; 90, II he SAW = storm coming, he
collected all the sap, ana turned the
buckets upside down till the rain was
over. - -
Farmer CHEEKY had great iron pan,
which would old,-oh, don't dare
tell you how many paiifuls,-a great,
great many; and this very large pan
rested on some stone posts about two
Ieet from the ground. Under this he
built fire, and into it he poured his
zap, stirring it while II boiled almost
i'll day long. When he drew it of,
Iuch beautiful clear sirup / don't be-
ieve you ever saw. This he did twoI
,r three time each week for nearly a
month; after that, the sap was not as
.ood for people to use, though just
What the little twigs needed as they
rev older.
Some of his sirup the farmer put up
q cans to send to the cities; some of it
10 boiled more and more, SO thet it
would be sugar when cooled Then he
'oured it into pretty sc0lloped tins, to
arden into the round cakes you like
. nauch;aad some ofithi little grand
hildren waxed on snow. AZ 4
You don't know how that is9 IN
WE'LL May packed a painful of snow,
lst as hard as she could crowd it in;
1en she smoothed of the topas even
, 9 marble table, and she and Sally
irried it to Grandpa CHEEKY, who al
ropped upon their snow spoonful OF
,e hot sirup here and there. The lit =,
e thin, waxy sheets of suddenly COOL
sirup, picked up with fork and
ten as soon as cool, make an, excel
Mt luncheon; and the children tugged
eir Pan of snow round to give every y
le taste, declaring that 'sugar-ses- II
a. was the very best time in the %
ar.-Ruth Kenyon, st. Nicholar for
arch. ,
tic
Kite.Flying i'm Japan.
0r III tlo ,,h..L 10