The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1882-02-16
tbs s:ts,set= 4 Life-How they ara
Manufactured
VISIT 10 a SUGAR PLANTATION IN LOUISIANA
HOW THE TOOTHSOME MAPLE is MANIPU-
LATED-0LDEsT CHURCH BUILDING IN THE
E-HOsPITALIrY ALIVE AND WIDE
AwAKE-THrNGs WISE. AND OTHERWISE.

Especial Correspondence Of the VIRGINIAN.1
How many housekeepers are there in these
United States who can pay visit to the bar
rel, box or bag in which they keep their sup
ply OF sugar, without halfdefned wish DOS
sessiDg them that they would like to follow
with their own eyes, from inception to com.
pletion, the process of condensing so much
sweetness? 1t is the same feeling that
prompted one of Heen's historic babies to 60
inside the watch to "see the wheels 60
wound;" the same that prompted a larger
baby to cut open the bellows to see where the
wind came. from.
From early childhood 1t was my happy
privilege to be familiar with the process OF
making maple sugar, it being one Of The staple
productions of the dear old Green Mountain
State, where l used to slide down hill and
SNOWFALL for six months in the year Then the
Spring-time was the very merriest time of all
the year, for with the breaking of the long
New England winter came the frolics at the
sugar camps, on the days when they ''sugared
off" No sugar maker was ever so close. listed
as to make him forget to notify all the neigh
borhood of that event, and it was astonishing
how the limits of neighborhood would ex-
pand under the genial prospect of dip in the
boiling sweet.
From the first mild days, when the sap was
beginning to start in the trees, and the far
mers were busy scattering buckets" and
tapping trees everybody was on the alert
for the first sugaring off" This is the man.
ner in which the making of maple sugar pro.
crosses:
AS soon as signs of spring appear the
owners of sugar orchards mike ready for
work. A small hole is bored in the maple
tree; small tin spout driven Just below it,
and below that nail on which is hung a
clean, sweet bucket, which receives the sap as
it drlps from the tree. These buckets are
about the size OF an ordinary water-bucket,
are of wood, and without bail. At the height
of the se;tson a tree will usually fill bucket
more than full of sap in twenty four hours
This sap is the color of water and person
knowing nothing of maple sugar would call
it sweetened water
At some convenient point house is built in
which are brick arches" or furnaces. over
which are placed the large iron pans in which
the sap is converted into sugar. As the pro
cess u.s. from this point on, exactly similar to
that known in Louisiana as the "open
kettle" process, by which nearly all the yellow
10 1t
cover them both-always keeping in mind,
however, the fact that the New England far
mer who makes two tons of sugar in season
is an extensive sugar maker, while the Louisi-
ana planter often does that in a single day,
and the days of his season are many
was quite advanced in years before it ever oc
CURED to me that there could be any necessity
for any explanation of the term "sugarlng
off," I supposed all the world knew that
when sufficient sap had been boiled down to
syrup to make good batch of sugar" the
syrup was then clarified and given additional
boiling until it would grain" or turn to SUI
gar, all the folks coming for miles around to
help eat at the "sugaring off,
NV faith in the full understanding of the
term by the world at large got terrible
wrench about 1901, and, like an ankle once
sprained, it has never been as strong since.
There arose in his might and majesty man
of wisdom, whose postofice address at that
time was university of Virginia" 1T may
be Heaven now, for aught that | know
brains kill sometimes. 1t seemed that he
wanted to explain something, and it also
seemed to a strictly unprecedented mind, that
his hankering to make explanations lay mainly
in the direction of things he didn't understand
himself. For instance, he explained the term,