Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-03-26
SUGAR MAKING.


Especial correspondence to the Kennebec
Journal.
To those who have ever lived among the
sugar groves of Maine, the first warm breath
OF spring brings visions of the old sap house
with its boiling kettles Its simmering pans, and
all the delightful and peculiar associations
that gather around the sugar-making camp.
But it is, indeed, scarcely more than a
vision now for each year brings new evidence
OF the ruthless advance of modern improve
ment.
Evaporating pans, with automatic attach
ments, and iron molds, are pushing out the
earlier and ruder methods and the olden
fashion is fast taking its place in the OBJ
security of the past, with the brick oven, the
spinning wheel, and all those other adorn-
ments which we're wont to make rustic life
so delightful in its uniqueness and quaint
simplicity.
But If the reality is gone, memory yet re-
tains the original likeness. The scene comes
back with all the vividness of fond and early
| recollections.
As soon as the first warm days and cool
| night Of spring announce that the sugar season
is at hand all il activity on the farm. The
spiles, made during the long evenings and
stormy days Of winter, by the wide open fire,
are brought out; the sap buckets are over
hauled and stacked ready for use the arches,
mans and katfl.s are IooLaH 70. aud tho sa =,
houses put in order for the coming rush.
The sugar season is always short, and it is
necessary to be around betines. The stars
have not yet faded, and the east is just be-
crust, with augers, spiles and buckets, for
the sugar groves. The work of tapping the
trees goes rapidly on, for every tree is known,
as this same work has been done many times
before; and by the time the crust is beginning
to weaken before the advancing rays of the
sun the work is almost completed.
Then the oxen are driven through the deep
snow to break roads to all parts of the orchard
for gathering the sap
The primitive method of tapping was
simply to make cleft through the bark with
a sharp axe, into which was loosely driven
small followed piece of wood. The sap was
caught in troughs hewed out of small birch
or poplar logs, or in rcceptacles made from
the bark of the white birch But this early
method long since gave way to that of the
present day-that of boring into the tree with
an auger or bit and driving solidly into the
hole round spile made of cedar or of elder
wood. The log trough and the birch bark
dish gave way to rude wooden buckets, which,
in turn, have been replaced by lighter and
more convenient tin ones.
The sap is gathered in casks fastened to
wooden hand-sleds, drawn over the crust in
on ox-sleds
see again the low house, with its open
porch, on the Southern slope; the steam en-
veloped sap house just across the road, the
roaring fires and boiling pans and kettles.
All is noise and tivity; across the valley
come, re-echoing through the clear morning
air, concordant sounds and there seems to
be an universal music in the air. The day
passes and the sun sinks red into the leafless
woods. But there is no intermission in the
sugar making, although as the evening adj
vances the sounds of activity slowly die
away; and finally the stiffness is only
broken by the sharp stroke of an ak, or
an infrcquent far-off shout
see again that warm corner of the arches
where we were wont to sit to protect us from
the cold draughts that came in under the
stills, and through the too-numerous cracks;
the old home made checker boards on which
we played to while away the hours. Then
we replenish the fires and sample the half
boiled syrup with wooden spoons carved out
in leisure moments; or we go the barn to see
if the flock is increased by the advent of
another lamb.
Midnight comes, We sugar Off" scrape
the pans of all their sweetness, and, taking
the made syrup to the house, give way
to others while we turn in, only to be up at
light the next morning for a repetition of the
day before.
NJ. W. ARTHUR.