Connecticut western news., 1881-12-21
Sugar Making.

as it was are very different things, and what it has gained in facility it has lost in picturesqueness. The old camp with its primitive appliances is no more; the "kettle" has been superseded by the "pan," and the trough is becoming mass of crumbling decay. The women and children are kept at home, and no longer know the old-time delights of "sugaring of" though in the Arcadia of the past theif services were not des- pised, and the whole household set up it's abode in the woods.
 The sap was collected then in troughs each about three feet long, hollowed out of sections of poplars, and was conveyed to the kettles in barrels, from which it was transferred by scoops. There were five or more kettles, from ten to thirty gallons in capacity, and each was filled with sap, which was kept boiling, the larger kettles being reflled from the smaller ones as evaporation reduced the quantity. When the contents were re- ducedto desired consistency, the hot sirup was dipped out and passed through flannel strainer into covered tubs, from which again it was pou,ed into large, thiek-buttomed kettle for the process of {" "stirring of" some milk and the whites of several eggs being added to it. Thus prepared it was placed over slow fire and kelT just below the boiling point until the ! sediment and all foreign matters ill 1t | foated to the top and were removed, | when it became deGciously translucent. It was now exposed to greater heat and gently boiled, the evaporation con | tinuing, and bringing it nearer. to the point of granulation. Now the sugar maker was all watchfulness, and 1t fared
 ill with those who distracted him, for, if the golden liquid seething in the kettle boiled the least bit too much, 1t would become dry in quality, while if it boiled too little, 1t would become "soggy." :" He tested it constantly, plucking threads of it from his stirring-stick and trailing them round in cups of cold water.
 While the threads yielded waxily to the touch, the sugar was not yet done, but us on as one broke crisp between his
 fingers, the moment had come to take the kettle off the fire. As the sugar be-
 gan to cool, it crystallyzed round the
 sides, and gradually the whole mass,
 lnder vigorous stirring, became gran
 u.ar.
 In that way sugar was made years
 tgo, and when the sap flowed profusely
 Tho operations were continued through
 the night, and the fires cast strange
 shadows in the woods. But, instead o
 hut of logs, permanent sugar house
 Is now built, and furnished with many
 elaborate devices to prevent waste anc
 deterioration. Formerly, when the ma
 pies were tapped with an auger, a1
 "elder quill was inserted in the in
 cision to conduct the sap into the
 trough below that Is, small piece O
 elder wood about three inches long witt
 the pith bored out of it, which formed
 tube but in most orchards of to-day
 galvanized iron spout is used, which ha
 the advantage of not souring the sap no
 choking many pores. Everything "imprc The collections are mad
 with the unvarying order of collection from letter-boxes, and, if the grove i on hill, and the sugar-house is in hollow, the sap, as 1t is gathered, is emp tied into " flume," which quickly con ducts it to a large reservoir withi , the building, wherein it is straine through cloth. A scoop or Q ladle Is a
 anachronistic as @ javelin. From tn reservoir the sap is conducted, as re quired, through tin pipes into "heater," whence it passes through series of iron tubes to be delivered, afte , straining, in 8 condition for "sugarin off
 Maple sugar, as it reaches the market
 is of clearer color for all these improve ments; but there are some who actuall say that the flavor has fallen off, on
 that the new patent evaporators are snare. One change has certainly nc : been for the better, and that is th abandonment of the social life of tl
 old camps, which made sugar time 3 the Green mountains enduring memorie l with those who are now ebbing away l HOY.11er'e M0O0zjup