The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-03-02
IN .THE SUGAR BUSH.
Where Fun and Business Alingle
During Early Springtime.

! pow Old Fashioned Methods Are Pre-
| Hancock County, Ills.-son,e Interest,"
ing Details.
When the early pioneers of Illinois
came to fashion their rude log cabins on
the edges of the timbered country, they
! discovered that the Indians could make
maple sugar. Old Black Hawk and his
| bands roarned over the boundless pral-
ries. They found plenty OF game, yes
the sweets of the sugar tree were also to
their liking.
However, the Indians did not make
very much maple sugar. 1t was too
great task, and their utensils were
rude. They drew the sap from the trees
and drank it greedily, and if the squaws
boiled the fluid into delicious cakes the
bucks grunted with pleasure and ate the
sugar. Gut they preferred to chase the
deer or to war with the white men. Oc-
caslonally old Chief Keokull, for whom
the thriving city at the foot of the Des
Moines rapids on the Mississippi river
is named, would cross from Iowa into
Illinois with his band of braves, and the
two tribes would indulge in a grand
powwow, in which authorizing cut an
important figure.
The pioneers were not slow to estab-
ish sugar camps. In historic Hancock
county. Ills, which was the arena OF
many startling scenes during the Nor
mon occupancy from 1889 to 1916, and
! even later, there runs a stream called
Crooked creek. Along this creek are
located many sugar camps Of the Old
stamp.
At any one Of these may be found
| log hut or a ''lean-to," which during the
season serves as a means of shelter for
those who watch the camp by night or
day. The trees are selected and good
sized hole is bored into each with an
augur. Spiles of sumach or alder are
firmly driven therein, so that heavy
| wind cannot dislodge them. The sap
passes through these spiles and runs
into rough hewn wooden troughs. Mean
while furnace has been made at the
camp by digging a trench in the earth
three feet deep, two feet wide and ten
feet long. In this trench the iron ket-
ties, generally three or four, are firmly
| placed. The top of the trench is covered
over with mixture of mud and mortar,
and which is firmly packed around the
kettles. A tall chimney is erected at
one end of the furnace, and an aperture
is left at the other end whereby the fire
may be replenished.
Twice day the sap is gathered. An
Ok team, in later years team of farm
horses drawing sled upon which tubs,
barrels OF small vessels are placed,
goes from tree to tree and the gath
cred sweets are collected. A roaring
fire is then made in the furnace, and
as rapidly'as the sap can be gathered it
is poured into the kettles. A separate
kettle is hung from tree convenient to
the furnace, which is used for ''sugaring
down. the molasses after it has been
boiled su. emit length Of time. The
furnace is rally SO arranged that sap
in one of the .ssels will begin to boil
sooner than in the others. This kettle,
the first one in the row, is termed 1.-THE
heater" From this kettle the sap is
taken after it has boiled agiven length
of time, and is strained through fan
mel cloth into a barrel, where it is al
lowed to cool and settle, and it is then
drawn off and poured into the next ket-
tie, which is termed the ''sirup kettle"
In the meantime 1.-The heater is being
constantly replenished with sap from
the trees. Thus the sap passes through
several grades of boiling down., until
it is ''sugared off, in the separate kettle.
Much of the sap is merely boiled to a
delicious strip. Some of it is allowed
to cool into coarse sugar, but most of it
is nodded into squares or other shapes
of tempting maple sugar. Then it has a
dark brown or dirtlike appearance, and
the taste is peculiarly pleasant and deli
cious.
Great care and patience must be exer-
cised in boiling the sap. Fires must
needs be kept going day and night, and
the kettle must not be allowed to boil
over.
The season begins as soon as the sap
runs Often the camps are opened the
latter part of February and continue in
operation during April.
GAY DAVIDSON.