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

country of Northern Massachusetts and
| Central and Southern Vermont knows
| not what New England life is, nor
does he realize what really pure maple
| sugar is.
Northern New England life with the
making of maple sugar left out, would
| be like Mississippi without it's cotton,
| or Delaware without it's peach orch
| ards
Then, too, the pure product of the
| sugar maple is hard to find in the city
| markets, as jobbers adulterate both
| sugar and syrup with glucose and cane
| sugar, until the compound can not be
| recognized by a Vermonter, whose
! state has enacted laws providing Sc
we're penalties for any adulteration Of
| her maple products.
| The sugar season comes at time
when the Vermont farmer can not
profitably employ his time otherwise
| and, taken all in all, the sugar indus
| try is the most remunerative sources
| of income of the Green Mountain state
The term sugar orchard is gener-
| ally the one used in speaking of the
| maple tree portion of a Vermont farm
sugar bush" or sugar lot" are terms
frequently used, however. If some
| Southerner, accustomed to his great
were to speak to Vermonter about
the latter's maple sugar farm" the
Vermonter would probably laugh. More
than one Vermonter has doubtless
smiled at Thackerays account of Am
erican maple sugar making, which he
gives in one of his books, ''The Virgin
ians." 1 think. He makes one of his
characters describe a visit to the Yer
mont forests in the fall of the year,
when the leaves were beginning to
turn, and the Indians were beginning
to gather sap from the sugar naples"
I am afraid that Thackeray's friend
didn't see much of the sap at that
time Of the year.
A Vermont sugar orchard is not like
a peach orchard or an apple orchard.
The maple trees are set out in rows
and carefully pruned. The trees that
make UP sugar orchard on a Yer
mont farm have mostly "growed," like
Topsy. They are there because it is
their native soil and climate, and they
form a part of the woods on the farm
just the same as any other trees. Of
course, a farmer can enlarge his SUI
gar orchard by planting. Sometimes
there will be great many maple trees
together in the woods, just as some
woods have almost no other trees,
save pines or oaks. Then there are
sugar NAPLES along the roadside, and
some in the fields. They are all part
Of the sugar orchard"
Botanically, the sugar, or rock ma
pie is known as acer saccharinunn, and
there are several ways in which it
may be distinguished from the white
maple (acer dasycarpum) which it most
resembles, and the red maple (acer
rubrum). One method is by the open
ing Of the flowers, which always pre-
nn1n hn In To-
named, but the flowers appear with
the leaves in the sugar maple An
other method is by the shape Of the
leaf. The leaf of the sugar maple is
usually five-lobed, with the two lower
lobes much smaller than the others,
and each lobe is slightly three-lobed.
The Sinuses between the large lobes
are rounded, and this is the distin-
gushing feature Of the leaf for in
the other two naples the sinuses are
sharp often as if made by two in
tersecting arcs of circles.
AS soon as the weather is favorable,
the Vermont farmer gets out his buck
cts and sets to work tapping his trees
as quickly as possible.
The maple trees are tapped by bor-
ing the trunks with small bit-usu-
ally a half-inch bit-about one and
one-half inches deep, and from one to
three feet above the ground. Trees
are not tapped until they are about
one foot in diameter. After tapping
spout made of clean maple, beech,
tin or galvanized iron and fitted with
hanger for holding the bucket, is
driven firmly into the hole made by
the bit. A bucket of tin or wood is
hung upon the spout, and the tapping
process is finished. The buckets are
like ordinary water pals, generally
all alike, and each farmer usually
paints all his buckets one color.
Only one hole is bored in young
trees, but it is not uncommon to have
as many as six buckets with two
spouts to each hung to naples Of large
size. If the bucket fills with the sap
in a day the run is a good one, al
though twice this amount is obtained
in exceptionally favorable sap days.
What is called a 'goOd-sized" sugar
orchard will contain from 500 to 800
trees, and in the northern and central
parts of Vermont orchards of 1000 to
1000 trees are not uncommon.
When the sap begins to run well the
| farmer and his family must work
hard. A man with a large farm will
employ help outside of his family fire.
quently, and use two or three pair of
oxen or horses to make the rounds of
the trees with sled, on which is the
the buckets is poured. An orchard
of 700 or 800, or even 1000 trees, need
not require the farmer to hire help
If he has two or three boys in the fam
lily besides himself. From an orchard
of 700 trees an ordinary run of sap
for two days will enable the farmer
to collect about eighty barrels. Some
times sixty barrels of sap can be col
lected from 700 trees in one day.
AS soon as the men begin to collect
the sap the fires in the big evaporator
furnace must be started, and the boil
ing of the sap begun as fast as it is
brought in, so that none will be wasted
by souring, or that the quantity
brought from the woods may not so
far exceed the accommodations at the
house, that while waiting to get room
for it much will be wasted at the trees.
AT the time when the sap is running
freely the farmer must often keep the
fires going and sap boiling all through
the night. and, of course, he is likely
to have to work an day Sunday and
Sunday night. 1t is all important that
he make hay while the sun Shines"
When the work is hardest the fun is
at it's best. Those who have but a
small orchard will spare some of the
family to help relative or neighbor
through sugaring.
And the sugar parties-what one of
Vermont's sons or daughters ever for
gets them?
AT the party the hot sugar is dropped
upon the snow and forms into frogs"
and various other imaginative repro
ductions of animal life before it is con-
sidered at the stage of perfection for
eating. Some have bowls of snow and
saucers of hot sap, and the great fun
4 - acyg.