Morning journal and courier., 1892-02-11
A APHYsIoIAN,s yAcArIoN.
Itinerary of Tour From New Haven to Quebec Sugar Making Com tinued.

A PHYSICIANS VACATION. Itinerary of a Tour From New Haven to Quebec = Sugar Making Com
 tinued. V.
 CABOT, Saturday, April Il, 1892.
 My knee still painful. At Glow twelve" rose and painted it with iodine. Iodine being old and strong, burned and stung intolerably. Turned out and smoked, and tried to write, but could not. Turned in again, but no sleep. Wished was not in prohibition state! Turned in and out ton or fifteen times. At last, at about 8. m. slept little.
 Rose at to find my knee thoroughly blistered, shaky and lame. Did not walk all day, so could not engage in sap-collect- ing. (Thus far on blue paper).
 Raining. After breakfast rode to ''su- gar place" and helped throw down wood, skim the sap-pans, apply sweet cream to prevent boiling over, etc. This latter IS wonderful in the way it works. Just be- fore "syruping-off," i. e., pouring the syrup from the pans to allow it to settle (which is 8 very difficult process), the syr-. up is very apt to boil over. Ten drops of cream will instantly prevent it. Whitfield out, or as Willie calls it, ''built" plug to fit tin cooler shaped like 8 sink. The yield-of sap is very large again, in spite of rain and warm weather.
 Heavy rains all day, and very warm, i. @. above the freezing point at and during the night. Qt should freeze nights and then days to make good sugar season.) Willie very busy gathering sap. Comes l in about once an hour with eighty gallon the four holders which are now almost constantly full of sap. There must be over 1 ,O0O gallons of sap on hand to be drawn off and boiled. Rode down to din ner, and then to the village for the mail. Received letter from Engineer Norris tell 1 ing me to come to him on Monday. Re- l turned to 'sugar-place."
 After the first boiling, and when the syrup will "flake," i. e.,run from the edge of square dipper in "bands" instead of "strings," it is dipped out into pails and l "syruping off," It is then poured thro' a strainer into large receptacle. This must be done very carefully in order to avoid | pouring out any of the sediment which al l ways collects in the bottom of the pails. This sediment is an ininitisimally fine
 white sand, perfectly insoluable, and is l called "nitre." It is doubtless the
 silica which was dissolved in the water
 contained in the soil in which the
 trees grow, and which is, of course, the
 principal impediment of all ascending I saps. Sometimes, on account of the large
 amount of this "nitre," only the upper
 half can be used; though generally it oc.
 cupies not more than the lowest quarter ol | hrsp la oe fh ic
 snitre" to analyzs microscopical1y. Its
 origin seems to be a mystery, as also seems to be that of the sugar itself. The
 syrup left in the bottom of the pails, con
 taining the "nitre." is not thrown away
 but is diluted with new sap, and turned
 into the incest "maple vinegar" The
 clear part may now be canned and sold al
 "maple syrup" or "honey;" or it may bt
 'sugared off, in the manner described
 yesterday.
 There are three methods of telling whe1
 the syrup is sufficiently boiled to make
 sugar. One is by taking the boiling tenn perature, which is 228', or by taking tn specific gravity with a hydrometer, or s'saccharometer, as tits called in this case or by testing it's tenacity. This last method
 is the oldest, simplest and, if not the mos practical, is certainly the cheapest. Yo1 , form loop by tying half hitch in tn , end of small birch twig, flip it in the boil
 ing syrup, and blow at the film which form
 across it. When it will blow out into
 series of bubbles like soap bubbles a var 3 1 long it is ''done" and ready to be 'grained ! into sugar.
 Here is an interesting fact. Birch sa will not begin to run till maple sap ha done running. So at 'sugar place" the sometimes tap birch tree and wait for , to run. When it begins they know ths @ ! the sugar season is over.
 a VI.
 r CABOT, vt., Sunday, April 12, 1891. :, Still raining hard, with occasional |
 up during the day. Clear sky at 4p. n
 Shut down again and rained, however. r Rose at 8. Knee quite we'll. Can wal t with perfect ease, except for the blisters. J. Breakfast hearty! There it no Episcop is church in Cabot, and I doubt if there l. one in the state. (There are fifty six pa g too tired to go to church. His lamene Q makes it difficult for him to get abcu n l Will had to work all the morning to sa, a the sap on hand. It has nearly done ru is ming.
 n M-. Ms family are Good Templars. I g is Mason.
 IS After breakfast walked with Will to u le "sugar place." half a mile away. Not is lame. Sunday work at MT. Ms is conf @ ed to saving the sap. Some about he F. will not even do this, though judging fro y the number of smoking sugar-places whit 7, can be seen, the Sunday-keepers are n t. numerous. Will did not leave the suga 10 orchard from Friday at a. m. till Satu F. day at 6 p. m. Slept, what little he d st sleep, on board by the sugar-house fir B. Will cut me cane of "lever wood"
 will make up prettily.
 Returning found Mrs. M. had had oh
 followed by fever.
 Walked over to see Mrs. G.'s, MT. M '9 sister, to say goodbye.
 rs Read Youths Companion. Went to ba C. with MT. M. to see him "do chores" Maj s- fine cattle and pigs. He loves animal d l. I return.
 p Supper over, walked about the farl E9 lounged, talked, and wrote. MT.
 who had been Ion the jury' told | about some of the Vermont laws nev -' heard of such laws in free country! y g., thirty-six jurymen are obliged to st at at court for weeks perhaps, living on ,r weekly stipend of $14. The court si ic three months or more in the year. IT le jurors must present themselves before u 1l judge at 9 and o'clock every day to s
 | II GuOy ol0 WoACOus IL LAOf hAO Coll
 upon case, as long as the trial lasts, t
 twelve are under the sheriff's charge d,
 and night. When they ''take their wall !. abroad' the sheriff is with them. Tn must eat and sleep with hil i' They cannot even speak to the D, wives except in presence of the sheri n and in voice loud enough for him to hes if MT. M. told of case in which a man ow
 ing vicious horse which no one but hil
 self could water, who could not get wat
 to his horse from Monday till Thursd
 night. Would it not be as easy to bri
 the one sheriff as the twelve honest m to who compose the jury? Think of it! If
 is 8 criminal trial the prisoner is out
 bail, while the jurors are virtually priso
 CTS, and cannot send a letter or messa as to their own families, unless the sher or l reads or hears it!
 Then there are the prohibition laws. ( B. my way to the depot tomorrow mornin
 am liable to be halted by an officer, wi 2. without warrant, can search my bag, myself to see if have any liquor, and if
 have, and he thinks best, he can spill He can even read my letters to see if
 I-s- srko ke ;o& |