Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-04-15
Sugar Making and Maple Sugar


made, with a promise of more, Will
place the year 1889 among what are
called 'sgood'' sugar years. just
what causes one year to be ''good'
and another ''poor'' is difficult to
tell. From some experience and OBJ
seryation we are inclined to think |
that the difference in the flow of sap
from year to year may be accounted
for on the general principle OF supply |
and demand. 1t is considered that
the juices of the vegetable or tree,
called sap, supply the chief materials
for leaves and fiber. During the
period of leaf verdure, not only the
leaves are made, but grain of wood
is added around the tree, the bark is
maintained, the twigs and branches
push out and the live wood OF the
body is sustained, while all below the
ground makes its growth.
The three chief sources of supply
/ for the plant or tree are the soil ma
terials, water and air. The soil con-
tains all the solids that enter into the
tree, and it furnishes much that, dis
solved in the water around the roots,
helps to give it fiber, strength and
character. The water makes circu-
lating fluid to carry to all parts of the
tree its constituent elements, fur
nishes oxygen, and perhaps other
substances the air is q medium
which brings carbon, IN the form OF
gas, and other gases, to the leaves OF
the tree to be gathered in and help as
material to build up the growing
plant. The leaves are sometimes
called the lungs of the plant; they
both inhale and exhale. The sub
stances and elements mentioned, to-
gether with light, and heat and the
life germ implanted by nature, make
up all that is necessary for tree
building The sap is chiefly gathered
by the roots, which, pushing out in
myriad numbers all through the
ground, are searching for food, min
eral substances, and all that the tree
requires of them. There are millions
of little mouths in the rootlets, and
o in the bark surfaces of the roots that
1 are gathering in and drinking up suct
( water particles as come in their reach
n Held in solution in the water are sucf
/. elements as the plant can use and as
e simulate. By some mysterious pow
: er, perhaps capillary attraction, th
e water is forced up or drawn up ant
Z out to the extremities of every branch
n twig and leaf. During the GROWN.
II season, while the leaves are pushin:
u out, the seeds are forming, or tn
grain of woody fiber is building
around the stalk or trunk, and tn
le roots are pushing further outward
1 the ground, there is busy work a
: through the tree. There is great de
le mand all about for material to suppl
u the wants of the tree. If it happen
~ to be large, hundreds, perhaps thous
u ands of pounds of tree material al
re being used annually. When I'll
le growing season ends, the leaves, hay
u ing exhausted their life supply, will
Ell er and fall. The roots and twigs al
u powerless to extend or enlarge. III
70 process of rest, or, perhaps, mo-
properly, recuperation begins. III
SAP has been absorbed and with
nearly all the tree making materia
ay The winter comes on; the tree, stot
sh and branch is frozen solid and tt
Is, most it can do is to resist the bias
Ow and storms of winter. Meanwhl
Ire there are thousands of workers in t.
r ground drinking in the elements tn
.en nature will call for as soon as t
nv warm sun invites to verdure and l
he newed life; the bud enegy is callil
all loudly for material to make leave
the the flower buds, partly prepared t
at previous year, are demanding the e
an ments that make the substance,
Dor color. the fragrance and the fr
vas GROWN from the blossom. There il
yer demand for the strong elements tt
us make the wood fiber, the bark, a
the for energy sufficient to keep the
fire wood of the trunk in healthy grow
to The sugar maker finds, as he pc
Om- trates the wood of the tree with
'era tapping instrument, that the nulas
Tere the tree gush outward-the sap rul
the and he has only to convey 1t TO
hich bucket to have a material which ev
Vir- grafton and crystalization transfol
to into sugar. The sap, while 1t IS
lore tualIy pushing up. seems sometll
liar to descend, or pass laterally thro
the tree. The latter conditions
probably the result of some fore
attraction or expansion that squet
Yer the sap out as water IS forced ou
per- sponge. Sap weather. so calie'
the that condition of sun, wlnd, war
for and moisture which make the
49, flow freely. 1t is difficult TO
tinu- understand all the philosophy OF
has sap flowing. Freezing and tha'
Yer are important. Some claim that
!. A freezing of the tree fiulds' IKE
large panding ice, force the sap veins
'ecial large diameter. while at the
san," time the exterior warmth may exl
d his the tree, keeping the veins
at he open. The sap then passes
that freely and the rapid dropping II