The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-06-22
SUGAR-MAKING.
oLD-TIME METHODS or MAPLE MAN.
UFAcTuRE IN HoOSIERDOM.
Scenes IN and About an Old-FashIoned
sugar-Camp In Indiana -Tapping
the Trees - Sugar TrOughs''
Work, Fun and Frolic.
IIndiananolis .1oi1rnal.l

indianapolis Journal
The regular typical sugar weather,
freezing at night, thawing and stopping
by day, recalls the scenes and fashions of
a day long past, when homemade sugar"
we never called it maple" nor mis-
named the tree that way, except by Yam
kee inculcation-Was not a fancy confec-
ton, luxury beyond the barber pole"
candy of infancy, but "a necessity, when Or
leans" sugar was not to be had, or was too
expensive for the poor In pocket as many
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
were in bloom, at the latest,
and frequently before the frost
was we'll out of the ground 1t
deteriorated in the close chests-the pro-
lection against ants and flies-or in cloth
headed barrels, and lost much of the pc.
culiar flavor Of the early product, 1t got
musty and weak to the Sweet tooth,
though possibly not to the tea. For cooking
1t was never so good as the cane product.
It did not mix well, and left black spots
of undifused 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 or hive or
hand rivals it for these uses The demand
for it has manufactured score Of imita-
TONS but they can't fool the tongue that
has been taught in the cradle the taste of
the essence of dew, distilled through TO-
900, 900 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 a sugar camp"-Some few I'M
tutored or Overtutored noodles call it
sugar brush he would. with the Gus
tomary wastefulness of backwoods habits,
I'LL Id ~ oh. 70 IN
| old trees and new cuts In fresh trees, to
collect the water in. One primitive fash
| ion was to slope cut four or five inches
| into the body of the tree. foot or moro
up, and scooped at the bottom into a rude
little trough, from which the water was
dipped as fast as it gathered sufficiently to
be reached. This was wasteful every
cutting a little notch, would bore
a hole a couple of inches or so
deep and drive In a 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
| elder spileS Sugar troughS" made OF
cut two or three feet long. of a log foot
or more in diameter, split in half some
times, and followed out TO hold a couple
! of gallons or so, were in general use, but
they were wasteful, and those who could
afford money better than muscle bought
crooks and buckets These were emptied
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 di-
ameter laid parallel and far enough apart
@N fvo FOR fol nil If f11o
| tween them. On these the kettle-some-
times two or three, or more, owing to the
number of trees tapped-were set, and tho
water boiled down, addsd to IL, IL went
| down and still boiled down till 1t grew
"thick and slab. and then the fragrance
the grove could have discounted "nard
| and cassia's balmy smells. Pungent, in
! viting, suggestive, it is the bouquet"
| of our backwoods nectar, and
commonly surrounded by blooming
hebes Of the cabin and the kitchen. The
fitful flashes Of fire, tempered to the bub-
bling 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 diab0lical,
CORY look, as If CLEAN of pandsmonium
came through some crack or knothole,
and the figures standing over the kettles
| or seated on the end of the furnace logs
taught of the keener perceptions of the
nose, for lazy devils loahng about a fire
they hadn't energy enough to keep from
| going out.
The scenes of a sugar camp, however,
were anything but somber in spirit what
ever the light upon them There wasn't
much iding, and there was always fun.
If the camp owners had families, and the
backwoodsmau without one was won
der. the young folks made frolic of the
work of stirring of" or granting the
sugar. The name was eminently descrip-
tive. To keep the sugar from solidifying
into mass of impenetrable candy it had to
be necessarily stirred, and the work was
too hard for anybody to endure long at .
time. But as Shakespeare might have said.
and did nearly say, the fun "physicked
| the pain. The manager, man or woman,
frequently tested the condition of
the syrup by pouring a spoonful
water and noticing its "ropiness,
! its rapidity of cooling, its tendency to
grain, and thereby judging when it was
! necessary to reduce the ire or put 1t out
And all the while the stirring -of" went
briskly ON with many laugh, and giggle,
and squeal of girlish glee or boyish lrolic:
Egg shells were filed with the ungreined
denser syrup, to cool into Jumps as hard
as "dornicks, or cast into the mold of
teacups creased with butter or clean lard
to keep Il from sticking, or rudely nodded
into some uncouth form or formless
| chunk.
Most of the sugar woods anywhere
near the city have long been gone in
smoke, and ashes, and heat that has
mixed with the universe of correlated
forces When one thinks of the unmiti-
! gated folly of cutting down sugar trees
for firewood as long as any thing else that
would burn could be had, it seems as if
part of Carlyle's cynical snarl at thirty
millions of people, most fools. were
fair hit The result is that genuine
country sugar" home made sugar,
maple sugar. is as hard to come by as
politician who doesn't want an Office.
| Safety Bsnk-NOte Paper.