Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1903-07-10
MAKING MAPLE-SUGAR.
Method Of Gathering the Sap and Boiling
the Syrup.


Maple sugar and syrup are favorite
sweets the country over, and this fact
gives a general interest to some infor-
nation about the maple sugar indus
try which has practical value also for
the sections where this particular kind
of sugar-making prevails. An Amer
lean Cuitiuator correspondent supple.
the following details:
The evaporator is the first and most
important consideration. The point
to be considered in an evaporator is
the one that can make the best sugar
in the least possible time with the
least amount of fuel. Evaporators are
made OF galvanized iron or steel, cop
per or tin. They are usually sup
ported on iron arches lined with brick,
but sometimes the arches are made
entirely of brick. Storage tanks, syrup
tanks, buckets, and pals are of gal
vanized steel, tin or wood. We con-
slider galvanized steel the superior
article because it will not rust. Bucket
covers can be of wood or tin; spouts,
steel or tin. Half a century ago, these
epouts, or "Spiles," as they were
called, were made from cuttings OF a
species OF shumac, which had . pith
easily removed, through which the sap
flowed. Above tho "spile" was usually
cut a recess or pocket" into the tree,
which collected the sap before passing
through the spile into the bucket, or
wooden trough then used.
Take sugar place of 5000 trees or
rather, one that uses 5000 buckets.
When the boss" thinks it is time to
sugar" the men are set to tapping
the trees. A three-eighths or one.half
inch bit is used, and in large trees the
hole is bored about two inches deep,
in smaller trees only about one and a
half inches. Spouts are driven or
screwed in buckets hung to each spout
and covers, if they have them.
Some trees are tapped in two or
three and oftentimes four places, hang
ing q bucket to each spout, OF course.
Then, the weather being right. the sap
runs, and the teams are started as soon
Is possible, for the quicker the sap is
made into sugar the better the sugar
is.
Men with pals holding sixteen
quarts 60 to each tree, collect the sap
and empty it into the draw tank,
which is being hauled about on q
sugar sled" by pair of horses.
These tanks hold anywhere from
twenty five to fifty pailfuls. When a
load is secured, the team is driven to
the sugar houses. and the sap, by
means OF four.inch pipes, is drawn
from the draw tank to the storage
tank.
The storage tanks are placed on =
staging on the outside oi the sugar
house and connected with the evapor-
ators by rubber hose or iron pipe, the
flow of sap from storage tank to evap.
orators being regulated by automatic
valves. Thus the sap enters one end
OF the evaporator, working back and
forth through partitions and corruga.
tions till it reaches the other end OF
the evaporator, when it is drawn off as
"syrup."
The sap is not "handled" any from
the time the men pour it into the
draw tanks until it comes out fin
ished article, j. e., made syrup at
eleven pounds to the gallon.
: This may be put away in syrup
and allowed to cool and settle, and
then if the sugar is wanted, this syrup
is put into the sugaring off" pan on
a separate arch and boiled down until
the right pitch is reached, when it is
taken from the fire, stirred gently and
allowed to cool and then put into tin
cans for wooden tubs, and it is then
ready for market in the form OF maple
sugar.