The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-19
A CHAPTER ON MAPLE SUGAR.
-tep for the Indianapolis Journal.

which the sap was caugnU WIFI our dAeSi anu
generally from the bodies of small trees split in
halves Poplar, ash, linn and cherry were the
timbers generally made use Of. 1t often hap
pened however, that better and more enduring
troughs were made from the bodies of large vel
low popars These were cut into lengths suf
icient for three or four troughs each, and then
split into pieces of proper size to make
the trough light and easy to handle
and yet large enough for it to con
tain at least an ordinary wooden bucket
full of sap. Troughs of that kind, when
made exclusively of the mellow, yellow wood of
the great poplar trees that used to abound in
eastern Indiana would last long time. If
piled away carefully under shelter when the
sugar time was done, many of them would do
service from ten to fifteen years. But the ordi-
nary troughs from the half round sticks would
soon crack and get to leaking.
The receptacles for the sap at the camp were
also troughs. dug in similar manner, from the
bodies of large trees split into halves. Usually
a great poplar or ash, of straight grain and en-
during quality, was selected for this purpose
The troughs would be made from ten
to fifteen feet long, and would hold
several barrels of water each The splleS or
conductors were made of elder stalks or some
boiling was done in those days consisted of
two large logs-generally green-placed parallel
to each other and far enough apart for the old
fashioned big kettles to hang between them.
These were suspended from pole that was held
in its place by forks cut from the bodies and
crotches of young trees or saplings The kettles
were placed far enough apart to admit wood for
the fire between them and high enough from the
ground to give room for fuel beneath In these
rude furnaces the fires were kept roaring
mic
days of sugar making, the pioneer lived,
moved and had his being at the camp and in the
surrounding woods His feet were nearly al
ways wet and he often had the toothache or
merciless neuralgia for company. But when
these were absent there was a great deal of real
enjoyment and happiness mixed with the hard
labor of making the years supply of sweets, for
at that time few country people ever purchased
either sugar molaSSeS. Later on, came the
era of brick furnaces Pals for the sap from the
trees tanks or cisterns to hold it at the camps,
and evaporating pans to facilitate the work of
boiling and handling the syrup. While
these Improvements took much of the poetry out
of the old method, they added greatly to the
quality and cleanliness of the sugar and syrup,
and made the work one of much greater ease
and less discomfort and exposure.
This is sugar-making as l have known it in
Indiana where the frogs would lie croaking the
birds singing and the white snow flowers turkey
peas and crow-feet blooming before the work
was over, to say nothing of the swarms of yellow
caterpillar-ke flowers swinging off from the
willows on the sunny borders OF the meadow,
and the purple glory that misted over the heads
of the swamp naples.
But sugar making here in this East
ern land of mountains, and val
leys and never-ending winter is
in many respects widely different from the
primal Western method Northern Vermont and
the eastern townships of the province of Quebec
are the great maple sugar regions. Here the
sugars or rock naples. are such considerable
oe hat Dd-1vv nd pv-
pedent to preserve their sugar groves. 1t is
not uncommon to find a single sugar bush that
contains from one thousand to three thousand
sap-producing trees. The cold weather lasts
here so long and the snow melts away so grad
ually that the sugaring season is greatly eX-
tended and the farmers generally make the best
use of it. The snow is nearly always several
feet deep when the trees are tapped.
so far above the ground that it tends to their
speedy destruction, which is mtigated, as far as
possible by using very small bit.
l used to think that the pictures of sugar-mak-
ing in almanacs and books were made by people
who knew nothing of the business, because they
represented the sap pals to be hanging upon the
spes In the West, with the heavy pals and
wooden spes used, that would be impossible.
But here, where the snow is so deep when the
work begins, they are forced to hang up the
pals in that way; otherwise they would be con
stantly overturning and spilling the sap, as the
snow and ice melt away. For this reason a
smaller bucket, made of timed iron, is used
and the Spite is also of timed or
galvanized iron or zinc In some
places in Vermont the enterprising farmer
builds his camp at the foot of the mountains or
hill, upon the side of which his sugar bush is
situated and manages to run the sap direct from
the trees into the trunks cisterns at the camp.
This is done by a series of conductors made of
wood. In some of the wood working establish
ments they have machines that will make these
conductors so RAPIDLY that the first cost of them
&c N11ita nv
last for several years. After his trees are
tapped his conductors arranged, his evapor-
ators properly placed in the furnaces and CON
nected with the tanks or cisterns it is said that
the Vermont sugar maker finds it only necessary
to keep his fires going and have
a sort of general supervision of the work The
sap is fed from the trees to the reservoirs, from
these to the first compartments of the evapor-
ators, and thence to the second, and so on until
the syrup is drawn from the last compartment,
clean pure and sweet, ready to be sealed up in
cans or marketed in bulk for molasses or stirred
down OF caked into sugar.
The custom in the province of Quebec is to
make the sugar into cakes. Much of this is
quite light in color and of excellent quality but
one seldom sees the graduated maple sugar such
as we used to make in the West by stirring the
hot sugar so that it would give off its moisture.
The sugar season gives rise to much social en-
joyment here in the East. The smaller rail
roads sometimes run excursions from the cities
to the camp Of some sugar maker who is on
friendly terms With the road VI course tnOSe
who go on these excursions pay literally both
for the ride and the wax which they consume
But to city people day in the woods among the
sweets is a real treat worth many times what it
costs and the affair is 2 considerable source of
revenue to the favored sugar maker. Then the
churches utilize the season and advance the
good cause by sugar socals," at
which maple wax and music are
dispensed at so much per head. The wax festi-
val beats the strawberry supper in this respect,
that the visitor can have all the wax he may de-
sire to eat without endangering the receipts by
the cost of the material. The sugar making
closes here before the era of blossoms for the
plum trees and choke cherries do not put on
their white robes until almost the first of June.
Some of the song birds come early, however.
The song sparrow, the chickadee, the robin and
the purple thrush here early in April, and
by the middle of May the blackbirds begin to
hold their noisy conventions in the trees, and
IL G. ra1rtr In, rAf