The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-03-10
AGRICULTURAL.
Making and Marketing Maple Syrup.

great Dene0J during Hity years OF CX-
perience in my own sugar bush, with
over 200 of the very best syrup-makers
in my employ. First, secure good
sugar-pace. Orchards having a dark
wet soil and interpreted with good
deal of hemlock and other evergreens
will moi produce the best qualities of
syrup.
Select, if possible, an orchard with
southerly inclination, a gravelly loan
or clay soil, having good-sized trees,
with lively, light-colored bark, and
white wood. Procure the very best
evaporator of size large enough to
boil in your sap as fast as it runs. Have
the best metal buckets with covers that
will stay on when the wind blows,
metal spouts, gathering tubs, holders,
a small arch and pan for reducing
your syrup; good thick felt strsiner
and common flannel strainer, TO
use for the last straining, also thin
cotton strainer for sap. Have every
thing neat and clean. Have full
stock of good dry wood, mixture of
hard and soft is the best, as the soft
catches quickly and the hard serves to
steady and lengthen the heat.
Syrup made in a well-run evaporator
is of better and more even grade than
that made in one in which the sap is
allowed to be up and down, sometimes
deep, at others shallow, and alternately
boiling and stewing.
Tap your trees where the wood is
SOUND and white. Do not bore deep
enough to get into the old dark-coored
wood. The exact depth determine by
trees and the kind of spouts used. AL.
ways be on hand to gather the sap as
fast as it runs. Do not wait to have
your buckets half or two-thirds full be-
fore you commence. If you have gath
cred your works completely over and
have more time and the sap is running
rapidly, you should commence anew.
The great object is to hasten the pro-
cess of reducing the sap to syrup and
accomplish it in the shortest time, as
the longer the sap is exposed to the sun
and warm air, the poorer quality of
syrup it will make. Have strainer on
your gathering tub and one of cotton
cloth on your holders.
Boil Immediately and get into syrup
as soon as possible. Gauge your regu-
lator 80 that the sap will be only about
one inch in depth. Boil rapidly, skim
every few minutes; and when it arrives
at thickness of ten pounds to the gal
Ion, hot, in the drawing out partition,
take it out in small quantities and strain
through a good, thick, felt strainer.
This will take out all the coloring mat
ter and impurities which have collected
thus far.
Niter or malate of lime does not
form if sap is rightly handled in boil
ing, until after the syrup has arrived at
the weight of ten pounds, hence you
avoid the collection of the malate of
lime in the evaporator by this process.
Those who stubbornly adhere to the
old way of reducing the sap down to
the full eleven pounds in their evapo-
rators are not only losing much time,
but also wood and at the drawing out
of the first syrup have a deposit of
malate of lime commenced in their
evaporators which continues to accumu-
late and burn on, or turn yellow and
color every succeeding batch of syrup,
and finally makes it necessary to spend
q considerable time in getting it out of
the evaporat6r. -,
Do not mix hot and cold syrup, this
will produce color and also crystalliza-
tiorSsS When you have accumulated 9
sufficient quantity of ten-pound syrup
(say twenty-five to fifty gallons) put in
your small pan and even it all up in q
very few moments, bring it to 2190 by
the thermometer. You will then have
the malate of lime formed in the syrup,
but if you keep it stirred up and take it
out at once it will not adhere to your
pan. Immediately wash it, and never
thicken up second batch until you
have done 80. The syrup should then
be put in large tin can, with faucet
two inches up from the bottom. Allow
it to cool and settle, and draw off, be.
ing very careful that you do not allow
any of the malate of lime to escape.
The syrup remaining in the bottom can
ed, and the small amount of sweet will
be saved by the sap, and can be strain
ed and run into the evaporation, while
the pure malate of lime, which will set
tie to the bottom of the bucket, can be
thrown away.
The canning process is quite as i'm
portant as the boiling. The secret of
having your syrup keep well is to be
sure 10 get out every partlcle or lts I'M
purities and then keep it entirely from
the air. A cool and dry temperature is
favorable but can not always be &C.
cured. The whites of fresh eggs beaten
or mixed in cold water should be added
to the syrup and the whole heated.
When it approaches the boiling point
all the remaining impurities will rise to
the top and can be skinned off. The
syrup can then be drawn into the cans
hot, through faucet near the bottom,
and should be finally strained through
thin strainer or wire gauze.
The best style of packages for nice
retail trade are good, solid, quart bot
ties, oblong square, 80 as to pack well
and closely. They should have good
screw top containing cork. For cue
toners who use larger quantities at
once, good, heavy, tin gallon or half
gallon can, well soldered and of the OBJ
long square form, makes a nice package.
IT disposing of syrup in large quanti-
ties without the trouble and expense of
canning, it may be put up cold in good,
new, strong, iron-hooped soft wood bar
rels. holding about fifty gallons. Those