The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-08-01
In n Sugar House.

Like brooding mother hen. the old
sugar house spreads its low roof wings
at either side upon the rivers bank. At
one corner rises the towering chimney,
a marvel in its way. round as needle,
and having its inner courses like the
thread of screw that it may thorough
ly devour the black smoke which, other
wise would pour from the lofty muzzle.
Ranks of corded wood on one side,
ranks of blue, juicy cane with shoots and
thick-swelling joints on the other side;
wagons coming filled with the sweet
stalks and going to the fields again full
of noisy children; men passing to and
fro, every second one of them maunch-
ing cane; bright skies smiling overhead;
sweet birds, merry birds, brilliant birds,
here, there, and everywhere; the odor OF
autumn in the air, the sweet, gladdening
sense of rewarded labor in the heart
all these betoken "the grinding season."
when waving fields bow and fall pros
trate before glistening, flashing cane
knives piled by vigorous hands, and the
year is arranging his affairs for his ire
vocabe departure to the eternal past.
Soon the last touch OF preparation
is given; the boiler is scrutinized, the
great steel rollers are secured, kettles are
set afresh, troughs are calked, and
bright. new barrels and hogsheads of
cypress are piled in readiness.
1t is for other sugar houses to boast of
steam train, centrifugal process or
vacuum pans One advance beyond the
primitive sutiices for the unambitious
spirits of such one as this we view, and
that is fully met in the long rectangular
shcet-iron vessel with its row of compart-
ments from 'the grand" to "the bat
terry" instead of distinct kettles.
The fire is lighted, and roars under
those large compartments or pans filled
with water boiling furiously.
An armful of cane is thrown upon
"the carrier" Another and another and
yet another; then an increasing supply
follows, and up, up, up, it goes on the
moving, endless chain of wooden stats,
guided by skillful hands, it falls into the
insatiate jaws of the rollers, and is MUNICH
ed and crunched till it falls away upon
the farther side like a big wad of bleached
straw.
Along small troughs below the rollers
runs the sweet, white juice, through
fumes of sulphur in the perforated chest
beyond, thence pumped to the "receiv-
ers" aloft, treated with lime water, and
the word is passed below. Great clippers,
whose handles are measured by the foot,
fly rapidly the water is lifted quickly
from the first of the pans or kettles
" the grand"-and the juice flows in, to
follow again, after a while, the still
retreating water, until, at last, all the
ttoon 70 1o1 1,o 1Noi
foaming juice alone.
Carefully, skillfully, the surface of
each is swept with long wooden blades,
thus forcing back from each the up
heaved impurities detached through the
combined agencies, the sulphur fumes
and the lime water.
So the work goes on, day and night,
the divisions of time noted only for the
incoming of one set of workers and the
outgoing of another for needed rest or
food.
Round and round, the three huge
rollers ceaseessly revolve, while the
many jointed stalks jump and writhe
and crackle as they are grasped and
crushed by the cylinders; steadily, con-
tinuously, the little rill of expressed sac
charine sap runs to the purgatorial puri-
tication of the sulphur chest, and so on
through its several parts the work con-
tinues.
Down at the last of the pans-''t 1.-The
batter" who is specially known as
1.-THE sugar maker stands on guard.
At short intervals he dips into the
vessel, extracting a small portion of its
darkcning contents. Into this, when it
has cooled, he drops a small glass tube
with metrical scale like barometer's
and tiny bulb below filled with dimin-
utive leaden beads.-JameS B. CaJle in
tie Current.