Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1902-01-18

And all mean to do,
| And she purrs so loud j surely think
That she underStands-d0n't you:
| She looks about with her big. round eyes,
And softly Hicks my face
| ~ tell her 'hout the word | missed.
And how have lost my place
| Then let the wind whistle, for what to us
Matters stormy sky;
on, none have such Jolly times as We
My 'itt'e kitty and ].
From iets and Animals. Springfield. O.
How We Got EapIe Sugar at Wilson
Spring.
When the willow buds begin to swell
The Happy children know full Well
That the sweetest season of all the year,
Susarng time, is very near.
Papa" cried the Willow Spring girls
one morning in late February, John has
just come up from the maple orchard and
he says the sap is running fast"
Now began busy days. The buckets.
spies and sap tubs were brought down
from the corn house chamber TO be thor
oughly ceansed The big fiat boiling
pans, the finishing sugar pan and dipperS
and spoons galore were gotten out and
made ready. Swimmers and strainers
| We're laid out, and the girls got out
| their heart Shaped pans 80 as to be ready
| for the very first lump of the new sugar
| NOW thc team WIS Drought ana ali
| these things We're taken to the sugar
| bush. Here the old arch of brick and
mortar was cleared of the leaves and
| twigs which the winter SHOWS had
whirled into it. This was done to make
| sure there were no cracks in the walls.
| Ii had Il great pipe to carry off the
smoke and Il big iron door 10 close it.
There was little shelter near the
| arch, where in stormy weather the men
might take refuge or rest in a dull hour.
! However, a sugar camp is no place for
| an ldler, and rests are few and far be-
! tween during Sugarlng.
| When the sap cistern was cleaned the
men began to bore holes in the great tree
| trunks and, setting the spileS, hung the
| buckets on them.
| The metal Spite is a little trough to
make the sap flow into the bucket and not
| down the side of the tree. Sometimes
the sap runs very slowly, when it is cold,
and freezes in the bucket. The children
| pull the sap lciclcs off the spileS and call
them sap candy.
To gather the sap a big sap tub is set
on good sleigh and steady old team
pulls il along.
A man with Il sap yoke over his shout
dcrs follows the team. The horses jog
slowly over the wcll-known sugar paths,
| and finally they stop. The man takes
! two buckets from their trees, steadying
| them with his hands. but bearing their
weight from the yoke on his shoulders,
| He emptes them into the tub hangs
them back on the spiles In this way he
gees through the entire sugar bush.
When the tab is full he goes to the
boiling place. The tub is rolled to plat
| form near the arch, A sphon is fixed
into il, and through the pipe a small
stream flows into the upper Of the two
! boiling pans.
As the sap boils away very slowly--in
other words, evaporation is sow-it be-
comes Il thick brown syrup, but this re-
suit is obtained after many hours.
1t takes from four to six gallons OF sap
to make one pound Of sugar. ] heard one
sugar maker say that twenty-one barrels
Of sap make one barrel of syrup.
A tree may yield three gallons of sap
in a day and flow for six weeks, but this
is unusual and the average yield is four
pounds Of sugar to a tree for the season.
Busy times, indeed are these. There
must be wood cnt for the fire, the buckets
must be watched that they do not over
il0w and rs for the precious contents OF
the pan, that is never lost sight Of for
a moment.
Sometimes the fire gets too hot Then
a big SNOWFALL is tossed into the arch to
cool il down. When the syrup is thick
enough. it is carried in buckets TO the
house to be cooled strained, cleaned and
canned for syrup or made into sugar
Sometimes the cans, after standing a
few days will show q thick deposit OF
silica ia the bottom. Then. If for mar
ket, the syrup is taken out Of the cans
carefully, that none of the sand mixes
| with il. There is always more or less
sand in maple sugar, because it is in the
sap aud sometimes cannot be separated
from It, SO YOU see there is much labor
| represented by IL cake of sugar.
Sometimes the sap runs SO fast that
the tubs will not hold it and it cannot be
boiled as fast as it comes.
once the master of Willow Spring
came into the house at 1890 mt night,
bringing the syrup for the day. '"Thcrc
axe twenty one barrels of sap iii the Cis-
tern; the buckets will overflow before
| morning, and ! am so dead tired | do
not believe | can boil sap tonight"
Just now came Il knock and Il man APP
peared. who drawled out, "EIurd W
wanted hand TO bile sap tonight, SO |
| come over.
All that night from II o'clock aud I'M
I'll Il O'Clock in tho afternoon of Sunday,
the man faithfully watched the sap pan.
The sugar bush at Willow Spring had
only ahont 400 trees and the work was
done in the old way. but where the or
Chard has 1909. 1900 or 700 trees ia,
patent cyaporatorS do the work very
quickly and the cleansing and canning
are done in sugar house in the bush.
But there is always the same labor Of
boring, setting spilcs and Complying buck
! cts. Maple sugar is costly luxury, for
IT requires much time, skill and patience.
| Whenever | seek maple cake think
Of this. / think also how the children
used 10 boil eggs in the sap pan and brOn
ham on the Goals frOm the arch. How
good it WAS to drink sap and taste the
syrup and he happy out in the sugar
camp. And the delight Of being there in
the night, when the freight sent rays
| out into the darkness when the arch doc"
was opened. The lanterns Of the mel
moving about in the woods cleaned like
the fickcring will-o' the-wisp. The deep
Oh ny l.f H.. 80
be fancied the gliding forms Of Indians
or their ghosts. and this fancy is sure to
coac 10 one, for here, in this very hol
low, the squaw of Chief Okemos boiled
sap in the big kettle hung from IA tripod
Of hickory poles and strained it through
her blanket.
Lying on buffalo skin by the arch
looked into the blue sky and watched tn
stars twnklng and breatncd the frosty
air and said softly 10 myself:
'"The maple tree yields its life blood to
please our taste May its delicious sweet
! into Illifss in mai n @ lt