Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1888-05-16
HOW MAPLE SUGAR is MADE.


HOW MAPLE SUGAR Is MADE.
Pennsylvania farmers manufacture over
100000 pounds of maple, sugar every
spring. The bulk of this is made in the
counties on the west of the Allegheny
mountains, but the northern and north
eastern, counties produce large amount
of superior quality. Poets and painters
have succeeded in throwing glamour of
romance and rustic picturesqueness about
the sugar camp, and great amount of
sentiment is annually wasted on them by
persons who have no closer knowledge Of
woods in March than the poet and painter
have given them. In reality, the sugar
bush is a nasty, soggy place.
The sugar farmer has discovered many
curious facts about the mapleand its sap.
For the sap to run freely there must be
well tInipgle ed sendi tjons,ef jSat, cold and M
| light. "a still and dry yet dense atmos-
phere, with north or west wind blow
ing, is the best for sap running. That is
the weather referred to by the farmer in
his saying: "When fires burn best then
sap runs best" When the ground thaws
during the day and freezes at night, and
there is plenty of snow in the woods,
'ssap weather." is prime. A heavy snow
storm during the sap season, followed by
freeze and thaw, will make the owner
of sugar bush happy. ga few trees
will produce as much sap as a good many"
is an anomalous saying of the sugar far
mer. It means that trees standing close
together divide the aggregate flow made
possible by the extent Of soil they cover,
which aggregate would be as great if there
were half as many trees draining the spot.
Night sap, or sap that runs at night, will
make more sugar than the same quantity
during the day. Sap contains more sac
charine substance when caught either i'm
mediately before or just after snow storm
or freeze up. A tree tapped high will give
sweeter sap than one tapped low, but
the low tap will give the larger quantity.
A shallow tap will fetch from the tree
sweeter sap, and one that will produce
whittier and better grained sugar than a
deep tap, but the deep tap will yield
the most molasses. Sap starts just on the
south side of the tree, and runs much
sweeter than sap from the north side, but
sap will run for long time from the north
side of the tree after it has ceased run
ming on the south side.
AS soon as the sap starts in the trees the
NAPLES are tapped, iron spiles driven in
the holes and q covered bucket hung to
each one. In the old days the spile was
an elder with the pith punched out, and
the receptacle for the sap was either
trough hewn out of birch block or an
ordinary pail. The sap falls from the
spiles drop by drop, and so slowly that
it seems as if a pailful would never be OBJ
tanned but on the contrary the trees have
to be watched very closely, as the pals
fill in remarkably short time, and the
little drops of liquid sugar will be running
over the rim of the pail before the stranger
would think it possible. AS soon as pail
is filled it is lifted from the spile and
emptied into large barrel with top like
big funnel. This barrel is securely at
tached to rude sled or wagon, and IS
drawn about the bush from tree to tree by
mild hammered and easy going horse,
driven by youth especially selected for
his patience and carefulnesS,f for the rounds
of the camp must be made in slow and
cautious manner. An upset in the bush
with cargo of sap aboard lowers driver
in the estimation of his fellows, and it is
great feather in his cap if he come out
when the season is over with clean record
on that score.
When the rounds of the trees are made,
the big barrel is filled with sap and is ta-
ken to the sugar house or boiling shed.
There it is emptied into watts, beneath
which steady fire is kept burning. AS
the sap bols in the watts it is kept constant
ly agitated by those having charge OF that
part of the work, who use long handled
ladies and rakes. This is the most inter-
esting part of maple sugar making, but it
is at the same time the most distressing.
The damp wood smoldering beneath the
boiling vats, acted upon by the riotous
March wind, sends up dense clouds of suf-
locating smoke. The stirrer chokes, burns
and freezes by turns, according to the
whim and the temperature of the wind
and the combustible qualities Of the wood
in the fire. These discomforts, however,
never attend sap boiling in the northeast
ern counties of the State, where the sugar
houses are inclosed and we'll appointed.
After boiling in one vat until certain
conditions are brought about, which the
sugar makers skill detects at the proper
time, the sap is run into another vat
through strainer and then the boiling is
continued. When proper consistency is
reached in the second vat the sap is ready
for sugarng off. A few farmers in west
ern Pennsylvania have their boiling houses
so equipped that the last process may be
gone through with on the premises, but
generally the awaiting syrup is loaded in
barrels and conveyed to the farm houses,
where the farm wives and their daughters
take charge of it and "sugar off," 1t is
placed in huge boilers, on stoves arranged
for the purpose, where it boils and bub-
bles and reduces itself, under the skillful
manipulation and superintendent of the
housewife.
The tests of the different stages of the
syrup as it is slowly transformed into sugar
are the same to-day as they were the first
day maple sugar was made-a spoonful of
syrup on plate of snow, or dropped into
a bowl of cold spring or we'll water. The
work of sugaring off requires the greatest
of skill and the most constant attention.
If syrup is wanted the quick eye of the
farmers wife detects the stage known as
the "buckWheat"- little three-cor-
nered grains form under this test. The
syrup is then turned into earthen jugs.
When the boiling shows the advance of the
hardening stage, the hard work begins
The hot, sticky mass must be beaten and
stirred, and stirred and beaten, until the
grains separate and the sugar assumes a
fine, smooth and Whitened appearance.
While the syrup is still in the liquid form
it is run into molds and forms Of all des-
criptions, to suit the fancy or convenience
of the maker, and set away to cool.-Cor
NeW York Tribune.
THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT.
The North american Revie,D contains the
subjoined excellent article from the pen of
Walter Gregory, lawyer Of Atlanta:
"In this very pleasant world you may
look upon men in either of two ways. At
the outset you must make your selection.
Your choice will, in part, reveal yourself:
1t will also determine your happiness and
success. You are with US. You must re-
main auhila And Won rnuSt shane VOur-