The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-07-22
MISCELLANY.
AT Sugaring Time.

Al Sugarlng Ilnes
Sugarlng timel What charm is hid
den in the sweet words
What memories of boyhood days at the
old farm homestead are awakened thereby
The long reign of winter is at last broken.
The snow is yet deep on the ground but
tho climbing sun and the winds Of March
arc beating 1t down with steady persist
oncy. a few STRAY robins have returned
and chirp cherrily around the farmhouse
as the bright spring morning breaks. The
crows are cawing over the hills or holding
their noisy congresses in the cedar swatups.
All day long there is a steady drip from
the caves, which in the morning are
fringed with glittcring iciclcs There is
freezing by night and thawing by day,
and this Is "sugarin time" In this lati-
tudo the sugar making season usually be-
gins about the middle of March and lasts
until the middle Of April. Although
maple sugar is made to a limited extent in
many different states, northern New
York produces IA large share of the entire
output of the country, and 1t is to the
maple groves along these foothills of tho
Adirondacks that the jewellers i'm tho cities
look mainly for their pancake trimmings
The primitive methods of sugar making
practiced hereabout in our boyhood days
have now given way to modern improve
mcnts. The old fashioned sugar camp was
very different from the 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
ers and the blue sky for a ceiling 1t was
located as near the center of the sugar
bush" as possible, and here the great
caldron kettles were suspended by log
chains to long and strong green beech
poles.
These sweeps, as the poles were called,
were balanced on the top of convenient
stumps and held in place by wooden pin
or pivot so that q man at the longer end
Of a sweep" could easily raise the heavy
potash kettle and swing it away from the
fire. When the kettles were all swung into
line foot or so apart, the OK team snaked
q huge elm back log alongside the cal
drons, while a smaller fore log was rolled
into place opposite. Then, with unmeas-
ured heaps of cordwood piled between, the
great potash kettles FUSED in yet earlier
days to render BLACK salts") would soon
be rapidly boiling down the sap, OCCASION
ally threatening to boil over and spill their
sweet contents, but calming down on be-
or less ashes and charcoal got into the ket-
ties from tho fire, while an occasional dry
leaf was blown in by tho March zephyrs or
few beech nuts were contributed by the
scampcring red squirrels in the branches
overhead. This, with the bacon rind, had
tendency TO give the sugar a deep rich
tint and dark brown taste, but it was
"healthy.n
In those good old days the trees were
boxed with an axe and tapped with a
gouge for the insertion of q long wooden
Spite. a good deal of the sap leaked
around the Spite and was wasted and the
rest was caught in a clumsy maple sap
trough or ash hoped sap bucket The
sap was gathered by hand in those good
old days and after a heavy run" the
sugar maker had to wade through the deep
and heavy snow back and forth from each
tree in the bush to the sugar camp gather
ing the amber blood of tho maple trees
with sap yoke and emptying the drip
ping buckets into the steaming kettles to
return and gather another turn"
But, although laborious work, the joys
of sugar making were many 1t was
pleasant to sit by the roaring fire after the
sap was all gathered in, and while watch.
ing the great kettles to listen to the chat
ter of the squirrel among the naples or the
drumming of the partridge in tho ever
greens, and in the evening, when the con
tents of the kettles were thickening into
rich golden strip, it 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 the 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 strip which the caldruns contained
at the end OF a heavy run" of sap was all
put into one KETTLE with mixture of milk
and eggs added to gather the impurities
heretofore limited at and cleanse the batch
and when, over "a slow fire, the golden
strip was converted into sugar When the
strip in the kettle got to the proper CON
sistency, So that film of it ON twig
would depend unbroken like IA "leathcr
apron, the kettle was swung away from
the fire, and all hands revced in the de-
lights of warm sugar. 1t was "waxed"
on snow banks stirred until granulatod is
white rs chalk, or poured into empty egg
shells, and thus formed into maple sugar
plums. All the neighboring boys and
girls were on hand to help sugar of, ="
and after the batch was poured into the
family sugar tub to granulate the youths
and maidens 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 rctreatod, and the rustic SWANS, with
their trusty jackknives, 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, stoou in days Of yore is now an up
to date boiling place, with brick arches,
under cover, and adjoining IA small snug
frame house, whore all the appliances for
sugar II Aking are stored. The arch is top
pod With tail brick chimney, to insure a
good draft, and is fitted with broad, shall
low iron pans, or, if strictly up to date,
with II patent evaporator, which is Us
much ahead of the common pan as the pan
is ahead of the old potash kettle, Canton
On. Y Commercial Advertiser.
Manned hv Faint DraiSa