The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-05-04
The BFST OF MAPLE SUGAR.
A DELXCACR GIVEN no FEW NOR
TAILS TO TASTE.


sugar i'm Perfection-The Ideal Bush
and tho OId-Fasbioned Camp-Pro.
cess OF Boiling the sap-sugaring OF
Tho Result.
The maple sugar crop is now being
harvested up in the woods of New
Hampshire, Vermont, New York Con-
necticut and wherever there are maple
trees. 1t is great crop, too, in its way
ana amounts to some thousands of tons
all told. The genuine maple sugar, how
ever, is difficult article to get and
commands high prices at a distance
from the sugar bush. The kind of stuff
found in the average city grocery la
beiled maple sugar is chiefly made of
brown sugar and has only the faintest
4 flavor Of the pure woods boiled sugar.
The very best sugar can hardly be pur-
chased at ALL 1t comes from some iso-
lated patch of maple trees on big. pay
ing farm. The bush has been carefully
culled out so that the trees are far
Enough apart to give them leaving room
and a chance to harden their fibre with
the swaying of the wind. There are fif-
! teen or twenty acres of the wood lot,
\ with little swamp at one end and pas
ture land on three sides of it and a
stream on the fourth. The road is so far
away that the dust does not dim the
green leaves of summer time. A par
fridge has it's nest somewhere there and
the crows congregate in the half dozen
Gemlocks or pines in migrating time.
The dead limbs of the trees sometimes
are trimmed off. Ambitious sapling
trees make the boiling down fire in the
spring. In so large a lot there is always
a dead or fallen tree or perhaps two fit
for a sugar fire. Besides these Is the
\ now disappearing split rail fence, which
has given way to the wire fences.
The sap trees are tapped with a three
Eighth or half inch auger bit. The hole
is bored about two feet above the roof
Elanting three inches deep, and the Spite
put in SO that the sap runs down the
Hpile freely. Thes pile is made of wood:
branch of sumach an inch in diameter
is cut off and sawed to about nine inches
in length. Two inches from the larger
end the piece is sawed almost half in
two and the seven-inch end is split off.
AN expert Spite maker cuts his branches
eleven inches long and when he splits
them makes two spiles at whack The
Eoft pith of the branch is burned out
with red-rot bit Of wire and the intact
Hc WI CO bot
in an auger hole of the size used in the
trees. There are various fancy spiles,
patented made of metal, with pals to
hang on hooks under the nozzle. With
the homemade suies go milk pans and
three -foot-long logs followed out like
canoes, to catch the sap. All the sap
catchers are called buckets and the best
Favored sugar comes from wooden ca
noe-shaped buckets, which have seen
half a dozen years service.
The camp is little shed-a mere roof
of boards or bark supported by poles
laid across the branches of four trees.
1t Is a shelter during the spring rains for
the boilers. The pan is made of heavy
sheet iron. 1t is eight or ten feet long
and four feet wide. The sides are four
inches high. 1t is rivited and has to be
absolutely water-tight of course. At
one end at the lower edge is little fau-
Get with turncock. The pan is mount
ed so that it all slopes toward the fau-
Get. The pan rests on stone walls along
each side and across the rear end. The
rear end has chimney of ordinary
sstove pipe yard or so high. The pan is
Two feet above the ground To fire the
pan pile of wood is gathered from all
corners of the lot. Dead branches, bits
of boards, parts of fences, and any fallen
trees are dragged with a two-horse team
Ho the camp and piled up loosely, be-
cause that is the most convenient way.
The pile may be five or even ten feet
high and always contains several cords
of wood. 1t is gathered in the fall be-
cause then it is easiest to find and haul |
the wood.
When the sap begins to run freely in
the early days of the spring, after the
sun has thawed the south. side Of the |
trees, the boiling down pan, the buckets |
and IT,, spies are all hauled down to the |
woods. The furnace Is cleared of snow
and dried by fire Ones way is made
about the camp by treading paths in the
snow and the buckets are set to catch
Lie sap. L uC tlCCS ulC lapPCet ~ Nciiy
that usually the sap runs for only an
hour or two day. A big iron kettle
the very one used to make soft soap in
Is brought down for sugaring off and
swung by chain from the butt-end of
a thirty-foot sapling pinned over the top
pf a solid stump to swing sideways, in
stead of up and down as in a wellsweep
The second day in q small bush toting
the sap begins by the two or three men
going out with yokes holding on each
side milk pals and bringing the sap to
a big hogshead near the boiling pan.
The third day, If there is enough sap,
the pan is filled about a third or half
full and the fire started The sap boils
and clouds of steam rise from it. Sticks,
five and six feet long, are kept burning
undert he pan on a six-inch bed of red
hot Goals and ashes. More sap is poured
In as the water evaporates and the fluid
in the pan changes slowly from the color
Of water to brown that grows steadily
darker.
When about half boiled down it is a
favorite drink with the young folks.
Children who drink too much of the
stuff have suffered spells of serious i'll ,
ness, have even died, If the makers of
sugar may be believed. When the syrup :
c bcgipuir1p to tbirlxpn and pet sticky ' ,