Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1904-03-01
How to Make Maple Syrup.
THE PROCESS AS 1T is PURSUED BY AN
INDIANA MAN.


was awarded the first prize in COM
petition conducted by the Indiana Farm
er:
There are about as many grades of
maple syrup made as there are of but
ter. As with butter, so with maple
syrup, there is just one right way to
make it,
We aim to be ready and when the first
warm day comes, we tap the trees. We
bore 3-4 inches deep with l-2 inch bit.
We use metal spouts, galvanized iron
buckets, and wood covers made from
hemlock.
We gather the sap and pour it into a
galvanized iron tank, holding two bar
rels, head or top of which contains a
coarse strainer, and is funnel shaped.
Our sugar house so by 20 feet, is at the
base of little hill. To the top of this
hill we draw a load of sap. With short
bit of two inch rubber hose we conduct
the sap into a 20-foot cylindrical tin
spout, which leads to ten barrel
galvanized iron storage tank, inside the
house but above the evaporator. AS it
enters this tank it is again strained
| through a fine cloth. We use modern
evaporator with iron arch. Into this
the sap flows by gravity, the depth In
the pans being regulated by a float at
tached to the first or forward pan.
There are four pans on the arch, the sap
being carried back from pan to pan by
siphons. BY this means, the sap is al
ways at the same depth in all the pans.
As it flows back from pan to pan, it
gets thicker all the time. About four
| times day we draw Oft the finished
syrup from the back pan. The hot syr-
up is poured into large jars, and allowed
to settle "a hours. 1t is then carefully
poured into other jars, except little
sediment at the bottom. The next day it
is poured again, stopping just before the
sediment still remaining commences TO
run.
It is now ready to sell or seal up. 1t
weighs eleven pounds to the gallon, and
is almost clear "rve bought syrup OF
good many people, but yours is the
only syrup we ever had that left no sedl-
ment at bottom of cans" said custom
er to me one day.
As will be observed, all our utensils
are metal, except bucket covers, and
they do not of course touch the sap.
The only time we handle the sap is while
gathering. All the rest is done by grav-
ity and the siphons.
A Gill of rain water will spoil bucket
of sap. By spelling don't mean that
the resulting syrup will not be sweet,
but that that delicate maple flavor will
be lacking. Now as it rains frequently
i'm "sugar" weather, bucket covers are
indispensable. One year there wasn't a
single run" without rain.
Summed up, there are just two req
uisites essential to the making OF
perfect product. They are cleanliness
and rapid evaporation. With pans,
tanks, buckets, spouts and covers clean
as soap. water and elbow grease will
make them, the sap is as clear (clean) as
the moment it drops from the tree.
The longer it takes to reduce it to syr-
up, the poorer the product, hence we
"syrup off, often. | have seen syrup
ranging all the way from almost as black
as tar to almost as light and clear as
syrup made from melting "a" sugar.
The darker product was made up of sap,
colored by long boiling (l2 to Is hours,
rain water, twigs, moss, leaves, dust and
SCOT, boiled in large iron kettles, Ia
piece of fat pork in each one to keep
from boiling over,) caught in old wooden
buckets or troughs, and hauled in and
stored in barrels till boiled (Which was
sometimes the next day. and settled
with eggs or milk. l once heard max
er of the dark kind say that lighter
product was adulterated
As for selling, well, we get 81 gallon
in our little village mile from our camp,
and can't supply the demand. We use
one gallon flat-sided tin cans for delivery,
which are returned to us. Some people,
in order to get more for their money,
want the syrup thick This is a mistake,
as, when it weighs more than II pounds
to the gallon. it loses that peculiar
maple flavor which distinguishes it
from other sweets.-New England Farm