St. Paul daily globe., 1896-03-16

are beginning to collect the sap from
their trees now, and in a week or more
the freshly made brown cakes and the
golden maple syrup will be in the city
stores in all parts of the country.
Of course, there are sugar maple trees
in other states than Vermont. Consid-
cradle sugar is made in New Hamp-
shire and Northern New York, and a
few Massachusetts, people find enough
trees on their property to pay them for
the trouble Of collecting the sap. But
in every part of Vermont the sugar
maple is found, and a few men own
orchards containing more than 5000
trees, while orchards of 1000 and 1000
trees are very plentiful.
The sap of the sugar maple begins to
run about the 10th of March usually,
and continues thre or four weeks, ac-
cording to the weather Sap will run
only when the thermometer registers
at least 81 degrees F., and stops flow
ing as soon as the frost is out of the
ground, or directly after the snow is
gone. Sometimes the cold weather con-
tinues so late in the spring it is nearly
the 1st of April before the thermometer
goes above 30 degrees. In 1893 the
farmers around Brattleboro, Rutland,
Bellows Falls and other places did not
tap their trees until the last day of
March.
During the last of March and the
first of April there is little else going on
in the rural parts of Vermont EXCEPT
the making of maple sugar and maple
syrup, and there never is time when
Vermonters accumulate wealth so rap
idly or entertain their city relatives
so sumptuously as at the sugar season.
The only trouble is that this spring
havest is, at best, of only short dura-
ton, and as soon as the buds COM
mence to start the maple will allow
none of its sap to pass off through the
"spiles," and the sugarmaker might as
well close the business for the season.
There are very few people outside of
Vermont and the other New England
states who have more than a vague
idea of how maple sugar is made, not
withstanding the many attempts to ex-
plain 1T satisfactory in biographies.
One must either see the process or
very correct photographs of it to get
good idea of how those little cakes of
maple sugar we see in the fruit and
candy stores are made
Even the government officials in
Washington are nearly forty years be-
hind the times. On sugar-making
license dated Jan. 6, 1894, which 1 saw
the other day, there was engraved in
one corner scene among the sugar
cane of Louisiana, and in the other
corner was represented the sturdy Ver-
mont farmers gathering the sap from
the sugar naples into buckets carried
on the ends of yoke swung across
their shoulders. There are probably
not 100 yokes in constant use in the
whole state of Vermont today. The
method is still decidedly primitive. A
pair of oxen or horses hitched to a sled
containing a large tank or tub. which
will hold several barrels of sap. is the
correct thing now in use, and which
has been in use for many years.
But outsiders can hardly be blamed
for not knowing of the changes. for
the men who make our maple sugar do
| not advertise themselves very largely.
They live in the midst of some of the
finest scenery in the United States.
work hard, and have comfortable. han
| py homes, and when they can dispoSe
of their good maple sugar for 16 cents
per pound, they do not care whether
outsiders think they collect the sap
| by carrying pals from tree to tree
over their shoulders or by a circuit
railway
The Sunny South can hardly boast
| of people more willing to entertain
visitors than Vermonters. No one fails
| to have delightful time in rural Yer
mont when there is 'sugaring off" at
the farm. And the sojourner in Boston
during the middle or last of March who
fails to take run" to the beautiful