The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-04-17
AT SUGARING THE.
THE SWEETEST SEASON OF THEYEAR
ON ST. LAWRENCE FARMS.

Now. and Sugar Making Is "Up to Date"
Sugaring timel What charm is hid
den in the sweet words!
What memories of boyhood days Mt the
old farm homestead are awakened thereby
The long reign of winter is ut last broken.
The snow is yet deep on the ground, but
tho climbing sun and the winds of March
are beating 1t down with steady persist
ency few stray robins have returned
and chirp chorrily around the farmhouse
as the bright spring morning breaks. The
crows are cawing over the hills or holding
their noisy congresses in tho cedar swamps.
All day long there is steady drip from
tho caves, which in tho morning arc
fringcd with glittering icicles. There is
freezing by night and thawing by day,
and this is ''sugarin time" In this lati-
tudo tho sugar making season usually be-
gins about the middle of March and lasts
until tho middle Of April. Although
maple sugar is made to a limited extent lin
many different states, northern New
YORK produces largo share of tho entire
output of the country, and it Is to tho
maple groves along these foothills of the
Adirondacks that tho jewellers in tho cities
look mainly for their pancake trimmings.
Tho primitive methods of sugar making
practiced hercabout in our boyhood days
have now given way to modern improve
ments. Tho old fashioned sugar camp was
very different from tho comfortable boil
ing house of today. TO begin with, it was
right out of doors, with maple tree trunks
for walls, their budding branches for raft
crs and tho blue sky for u ceiling. 1t was
located as near the center of tho "sugar
bush" rs possible, and hero the great
caluron Kettles were suspended by log
chains to long and strong green beech
poles.
These "swccps, " rs the poles wcro called,
were balanced Oh tho top of convenient
stumps and held in place by wooden pin
or pivot SO that a man at tho longer end
OF sweep" could easily raise the heavy
potash kettle and swing it away from tho
fire When the kottlcs were all swung into
llno u foot or SO apart, tho OK team snakcd
huge elm back log alongside tho cal
drons, while smaller fore log was rolled
into place opposite Then, with unmeas-
urcd heaps of cordwood piled between, tho
great potash kcttles (uscd in yet earlier
days to render "black satisfy would soon
be rapidly boiling down the sap, occasion
oily threatening to boil over and spill their
sweet contents, but calming down on be-
ing fed scrap of greasy bacon rind More
or less ashes and charcoal got into the ket-
ties from tho fire, whilo an occasional dry
leaf was blown in by the March zephyrs or
few beech nuts were contributed by tho
scampcrlng red squirrels i'll the branches
overhead. This, with tho bacon rind had
tendency to give tho sugar IL deep rich
tint and u dark brown taste, but il was
"healthy"
In those good old days tho trees wcro
"DoXod with an axe and tapped with "a
gougo Tor the insertion of q long wooden
spite. a good deal of tho sap leaked
md hn 10
rest was caught in n clumsy maple san
trough or ash hoped sap bucket. Tho
sap was gathered by hand in those good
old days and after heavy run" tho
sugar maker had TO wade through tho deep
and heavy snow back and forth from each
tree In the bush to the sugar camp gather
ing the amber blood of the maple trees
with sap yoke and cmptying the drip
ping buckets into tho stcaming kettles to
return and gather another turn
But although laborious work, the joys
OF sugar making We're many 1t was
pleasant to sit by tho roaring fro after tho
sap was all gathered in, and while watch
ing tho great kettles to listen to tho chat
ter of the squirrel among the NAPLES or the
drumming of the partridge in the ever
greens, and i'll the evening, when the con-
tents OF tho Kettles werc thickcning into
rich golden sirup, 1t was pleasant to tend
the caldrons, while the little space of fire
light around was walled in with the thick
darkness of the woods and tho spectral
trunks OF the tall trees, and the hooting of
the owl or the barking Of the distant farm
dog was the only sound to break the still
ness. The browning joy of the season,
however, WAS the "sugaring off, >" when
the slrup which the caldrons contained
at tho end of II heavy run" of sap was all
mt into Epttlp with o,,f, IL
and eggs added to gather the impurities
heretofore hintod ut and cleanse tie batch.
and when, over slow fire, tho golden
sirup was converted into sugar. When tho
sirup In the Kettle got to tho proper con-
sistency, so that u film of it on q twig
would depend unbroken like a :'leather
apron, tho Kettle was swung away from
the fire, and all hands revcled in tho de-
lights of warm sugar. 1t was "waxcd"
Oh snow banks, stirred until granulated as
white rs chalk, or poured into empty egg
shells, and thus formed into maple sugar
plums. All tho neighboring boys and
girls were on hand to help sugar off,
and after the batch was poured into the
family sugar tub to granulate the youths
and maidons wandered through the woods
TO gather slippery elm bark, or sought the
first spring flowers along some sunny
southern slope from which the snow banks
had retreatod, and tho rustic SWANS. with
their trusty jackknivos, carved their own
and their swoethcarts' initials upon the
smooth bark of tho old beech that lowered
above the sugar camp.
How changed is all this now. Where
the OLD sugar camp with its rows of cal
drons, stood in days of yore is now IN I'D
to date boiling place, with brick arches,
under cover, and adjoining a small snug