The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-05-08
oLD.TlME SUGAR MAKING.
The Season at Hand When the San starts In
the Producing Maple-Scenes In
anu About An Old-Fashioned Sugar

Sdlhp.
The regular typical sugar weatf
er," freezing at night, thawine an,
stopping by day, recalls the scene
and fashions of a day long past, whe
homemade sugar"-we never Gale
it "maple" o misnamed the tire
that way, except by Yankee ~inculca
tion-was not a fancy CONNECTION.
luxury beyond the barber pole" cand.
OF infancy, but a necessity, when "Or
leans, sugar was not to be had, O
was too expensive for the poor i,
pocket, as many a rich man of to.da,
was in that day. The free.hande;
householder laid in his years stock o
sugar by the time the apple trees wer,
III bloom, at the latest, and f~reoueptl,
before the frost was well out of th,
ground. 1t deteriorated, in the
close chests-the protection against
ants and fies-or in cloth headed bar
rels. and lost much of the pecnlla,
iiaVor OF the early product. 1t got
nusty and weak to the sweet TOOTH
though possibly not to the tea. Fo,
cooking it was never so good as tho
cane product. 1t did not mix well
and LETT black spots OF undifrusec
sugar that ~variegatcd the taste OF
cake too gaudily. In molasses it was
best, and it is still unmatched for pan.
cakes n fritters and all table use,
No syrup equals it, no honey of hive
or hand rivals it for these uses. The
demand forit has manufactured a
score OF limitations, but they can't fool
the tongue that has been taught in
cradle the taste of the essence of
dew, distilled through ten million
tubes in the sugar tree.
When the sugar season-ssa 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 a "suoar
camp'--some few untutored or over
tutored noodles call it sugar brush"
he would, with the customary waste
fulness OF backwoods habits, 90 out
with his AK and chop fresh cuts in old
trees II 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, a foot
'r more up, and scooped at the bot
into a rude little trough, from
which the water was dipped as fast as
7 gathered sufficiently to be reached.
This was wastefnl every way, and SEN
'lble farmers. after cutting a little
lotcl, would bore a hole a couple of
nches or SO deep and drive in a spile
II elder with the pith punched out,
n time, though, the notch was aban-
Toned, and the hole bored directly
trough the bark, and tubes sabstitu-
ed IN some cases for the elder spiles.
Sugar troughs" made OF a cut two
II three feet long, of Il log a foot or
more in diameter, split in half sone-
ines, and followed out to hold a
ouple OF gallons or so, were in gener-
| use. but they were wastefuI, and
hose who could afford money better
nan muscle bought crooks and buck
Is. These We're emptied, and some
INES by hand. sometimes by sleds or
carrying tubs, the water was
tken to the kettles ut rounds made at
intervals.
The primitive furnace long remained
probably in many places Yet remains
In use, and that was Il couple of big
'gs a dozen feet long. and a foot or
No in diameter. laid parallel and far
nougil apart to make room for n fair
lie or fuel between them. On these
kettles sometimes two or three.
+ more, owing to the number of trees
lpped-were set. and the water boiled
own, added to as it went down and
I'LL boiled down till it grew thick
nd slab and then the f~ragrence that
as on the passing breeze through the
could have discounted 1.nard
act cassia's balmy SMELLS" Pungent.
wiling, suggestive, it is the .sboquet''
Il backwoods nectar, and com
only surrounded by blooming hebes
the cabin and the kitchen. The titful
OF fire, tempered to the bub-
ing OF the kettles, which, unguarded.
boiicd over, lit I'D the
GODS about with a somber glow that
n streaks Of snow, the bare
'ugls OF the trees, the gray trunks
III the brown leaves at their o a
II OF dlabolical, CORY look, as if a
cam OF Pandemonium came through
nue. crack or knot-hole; and the tie-
'es standing yer the kettles or seat
on the end of the f~urnace-lors
have been mistaken by eyes IN
usht of the keener perceptions of
e nose, for lazy devils loaiing about
fire they hadn't energy enough to
cp from going out.
The scenes Of a suear-camp. how
eE, were anything hut somber in
nit, whatever the tight upon them.
'ere wasn't much idling. and there
Is always fun. Ii the camp owners
u families, and the backwoodsman
tilout n was Il wonder, the YOUNG
ks made a frolic OF the work Of
OFF, or granting the sugar.
name was emincntly descriptive.
keep the sugar from soiidifying
Q a mass OF ~lmpenetrable candy it
d to be lncessantly stirred: and the
'rk was too hard for anybody to en-
long at Il time. But as Shak-
care might have said, and did
say, the fun .'physicked the pain.n
c manager, man or woman, fire. :
emily tested the condition Of the {
by pouring a spoonful into a !
N |Sih oiAul "dtCt dUu no =
my It's '~,ropiness," its rapidity of {
its tendency to grain" and {
Judging when it was necessa. /
to rednce the fire or put it out. And {
the while the stirring off" went t
sky on with many alaugh. and gig l
I, and squeal OF girlish glev or boy $
frolic. Egg shells were filed !
n the ungrained denser syrup, to t
INTO Jumps as hard as "dornicks," L
cast into the mold of teacups :
with butter or c can lard to I
p it from sticking, or rudely mold t.
some uncouth form or formless l
INK. Hands, and hair, and sleeves Fl
sticky. drops of sugar fell on the p
thing and cooled and stuck like l
Everybody went home from a o
irring-off'' in a mess of misplaced Il
lasses. But it was better fun than G
Eating rink, and it made money,t too. v
lost OF tile sugar woods anywhere II
r the city have long been gone in C,