The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1885-07-04
oLD-TIME SUGAR MAKING.
Scenes in and About an Old-Fashioned
Sugar Camp.

Sugar Camp.
The regular typical sugar weather."
freezing at might, thawing and slop-
ping by day, recalls the scenes and
fashions of a day long past. when
homemade sugar''-we never. called
it s.maple" nor misnamed the tree that
way, except by Yankee incubation
was not fancy CONNECTION, luxury be-
yond the 'barber-pole" candy of in
fancy, but necessity, when Orleans
sugar was not to be had, or was too ex-
pensive for the poor in pocket, as many
a rich man of to-day was in that day.
The free-handed householder laid in his
years stock of sugar by the time the
apple trees are in bloom, as the latest,
and frequently before the frost was we'll
out of the ground 1t deteriorated in
the close chests-the protection against
ants and flies-or in cloth-headed bar.
rels, and lost much of the peculiar flavor
of the early product. 1t got musty and
weak to the ''sweet tooth, though pos
sibly not to the tea. For cooking it,
was never so good as the can product.
| 1t did not mix well, and left black spots
OF undiffused sugar that variegated the
taste Of cake too gaudily. In molasses
it was best, and it is still unmatched for
pancakes and fritters and all table use.
No syrup equals it, no honey of hive or
hand rivals it for these uses. The de-
mand for it has manufactured a score
of limitations, but they can't fool the
tongue that has been taught in the era
die the taste of the essence of dew, dis
titled through ten million tubes in the
sugar tree.
When the sugar seasOn-"a movable
| feast" like Easter-came on, sometimes
early in February, sometimes early in
March, but usually between the two,
the owner of "sugar camp"-some
| few untutored or overtutored noodles
call it sugar brush" he would, with
the customary wastefulness of back
woods habits, go out with his AK and
chop fresh cuts in old trees and new
cuts in fresh trees, to collect the water
in. One primitive fashion was to slope
| a cut four or five inches into the body
| of the tree, foot or more up, and
scooped at the bottom into rude little
trough, from which the water was
| dipped as fast as it gathered sufficiently
| to be reached. This was wasteful every
way, and sensible farmers, after cutting
little notch, would bore hole a
| couple of inches or so deep and drive in
| Spite of elder with the pith punched
out. In time, though, the notch was
abandoned and the hole bored directly
| through the bark, and tin tubes substi-
| tuted in some cases for the elder spiles.
"Sugar troughs" made of a cut two or
| three feet long, of log foot or more
| in diameter, split in half sometimes and
followed out to hold couple of gallons
or so, were in general use, but they
were wasteful and those who could af-
| ford money better than muscle bought
crooks and buckets. These were emp
tied, and sometimes by hand, sometimes
by sleds or wagons carrying tubs, the
water was taken to the kettles at rounds
made at regular intervals.
The primitive furnace long remained-
probably in many places yet remains
in use, and that was couple of big logs
dozen feet long and foot or two in
diameter, laid parallel and far enough
| apart to make room for fair pile of
| fuel between them. On these the ket-
| tles-sometimes two or three, or more,
| owing to the number of trees tapped
were set, and the water boiled down,
added to as it went down and still
boiled down till it grew ''thick and
| slab," and then the fragrance that was
on the passing breeze through the grove
could have discounted '.nard and cas-
sia's balmy SMELLS" Pungent, inviting,
suggestive. it is the ''bouquet" of our
backwoods nectar, and commonly sur
rounded by blooming hebes of the cabin
and kitchen. The fitful flashes of fire,
tempered to the bubbling of the kettles,
which, unguarded, sometimes boiled
over, lit up the woods about with a
somber glow that gave the streaks of
snow. the bare boughs of the trees, the
gray trunks and the brown leaves at
their roots sort of diabolical, CORY
look, as if a CLEAN of Pandemonium
came through some crack or knot-hole;
! and the figures standing over the ket-
ties or seated on the end of the furnace
logs might have been mistaken by eyes
| untaught of the keener perceptions of
the nose, for lazy devils loaf1ng about a
fire they hadn't energy enough to keep
from going out.
The scenes of sugar camp, however,
WCiC Dub cOhhbCA !"
| whatever the light upon them. There
wasn't much idling. and there was
always fun. If the camp owners had
families, and the backwoodsman with
out one was wonder. the young folks
made frolic of the work Of stirring
OFF, or granting the sugar. The name
was eminently descriptive. To keep the
sugar from solidifying. into mass of
impenetrable candy it had to be inces-
sanity stirred, and the work was too
hard for anybody to endure long at q
time. But as Shakespeare might have
said, and did nearly say, the fun phys
licked the pain" The manager. man
or woman, frequently tested the condi-
ton of the syrup by pouring spoonful
into 'gourd' of cold sugar water and
noticing its ''ropiness," its rapidity of
cooling, its tendency to ''grain," and
thereby Judging when it was necessary