The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1885-05-01
OLD.TlME SUGAR MAKING.
The Season at Hand When the Sap Starts In
the Sugar Producing Mnple-Scenes In
and About An Old-Fashioned Sugar

and About An 0ld-Fashioned Sugar
Camp.
The regular typical ''sugar wealth
er," freezing at night. thawing and
stopping by day, recalls the scenes
and fashions of day long past, when
"home-made sugar"-we never called
it "maple" nor misnamed the tree
that way, except by Yankee inculca-
tion-was not a fancy CONNECTION. a
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 well out of the
ground. 1t deterioratedj in the
close chests the protection against
ants and ilies-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 possibly not TO the tea. For
cooking it was never so good rs the
cane product. 1t did not mix well,
and left black spots of undiflused
sugar that variegated the taste of
cake too gaudily. In molasses it was
best. and ii is still unmatched for pan
cakes and fritters and all table use.
No syrup equals it, no honey of hive
or hand rivals it for these uses. The
demand for it has manufactured n
score of limitations, but they can't fool
the tongue that has been taught in
tn cradle the taste of the essence of
dew, distilled through ten million
tubes in the sugar tree.
When the sugar season-'a nova
BILE feast" like Easter-came on,
sometimes early in February, some
times early in March, but usually be-
tween the two, the owner of Il sugar
camp'-some few untutored or over
tutored noodles call it ''sugar brush"
he would, with the customary waste
fulness of backwoods habits, 60 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 bot
tom 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 sem
sible 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 aban-
doned, and the hole bored directly
through the bark, and tubes substitu-
ted in some cases for the elder spiles.
"Sugar troughs" made of cut two
or three feet long, of log foot or
more in diameter, split in half some
times, and followed out to hold a
couple of gallons or so, were in gener-
al use, but they were wasteful, and
those who could afford money better
than muscle bought crooks and buck
cts. These were emptied, and some
times 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 OF
two in diameter, laid parallel and far
enough apart to make room for fair
pile OF fuel between them. On these
the kettles 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 fragrence that
was on the passing breeze through the
grove could have discounted 'nard
and cassia's balmy smells" Pungent,
inviting, suggestive, it is the "boquet"
of our backwoods nectar, and COM
monty 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 q
sort of diabolical, CORY look, as If a
CLEAN of Pandemonium came through
some crack or knot-hole; and the hg-
ures standing over the kettles or seat
ed on the end of the furnace-logs
might have been mistaken by eyes I'M
taught of the keener perceptions OF
the nose, for lazy devils loaiing about
lire they hadn't energy enough to
keep from going out.
The scenes of a suear-camp, how
ever, were anything but somber in
spirit, whatever the light upon them.
There wasn't much idling. and there
was always fun. If the camp owners
had families, and the backwoodsman
without one was wonder, the young
folks made a 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 1t
had to be necessarily stirred; and the
work was too hard for anybody to en-
dure long at time. But as Shak-
speare might have said, and did nesr,
" say. the fun ''physicked the pain. )"
The manager, man or woman, ire
quently tested the condition OF the
syrup by pouring a spoonful into a
..gourd'' of cold sugar water and no.
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