Daily Kennebec journal., 1906-04-17
Short Cuts in Making Maple Sugar.

In the sugar bush the important op-
eratiOns which should receive the
attention OF the farmer the coming
spring are numerous. First, he should
see that his buckets are sweet and
clean; next, never bore more than 212
inches deep taking care not to strike
dead Or colorcd streakS i'll the tree as
/ believe those have tendency tC
make the sugar dark colored. We al
ways use the round Tipped Cook bit
as we think it borcs smother than
any other ana also cleans the hole
better when drawn from the tree. /
think roaming does not pay.
sap should be gathered if possible
as fast as it runs and boiled as fast as
il is gathered doing away with the
storage. II also should be strained
at every opportunity. In regard to the
evaporatinE | think Williams i'm
proved e"apOrator is the best on the
market We use one of this make l6
feet long by il inches wide set on a
brick arch having the fire box COW
cred with grating back 4 feet from
she door with Il 2-toot drop under
tor draft and ash pit.
The chimney is - feet high with a
fine 15x15 inches ana damper III the
bottom of the chimney to regulate
the draft. | thing many farmers fail
first, in not having enough grating
second, in not having drops enough
under grating. and lastly, in having
1lucs too small and Chimneys too low
IL Is well to give room in all these
places as one can regulate all WITH
Ehe damper in the chimney. Many
said when we We're building our arch
that they did not believe we could
make our evaporator boil at the back
end 16 feet from where we put in
the wood but we have never had any
trouble on that score for when the
regulator is set for inches in depth
of sap in the CVaporatOr. | can make
il boil over the top of the evaporation
the whole length.
/ think it does not pay to bother with
covers for buckets us they are always
in the way. Ii you Keep them down over
the buckets in the cally part of the sea-
son. they shade the spuuts so the sap will
not start as early in the day as it VIII if
the buckets are left open for the sun to
shine in. If one leaves thcm up. when
there arc indications Of a storm one must
covers and that means something when
You have TO so to 1859 or 1l0O buckets.
Yes. the malate of lime does give us
some trouble but it all comes in the evan
orator ana straincrs. 1t adheres to tho
bottom OF the syruping down anartment
so that this has to be cleaned cverv
morning when We boil But we do NOT So
amy indications of it in the svrun as We
used 10 when we boiled in pans | know
of 10 way to prevent it entirely. but thinr
II would help to have n rcyersible ,vann
raior with svruping down apartmrnt
nlad" of copper in each end and reyars,
this every day. ] think the fresh san woul,
have u tendency to take OF some of RI,
maiate Of lime and wash il through int,
the strainer If | was to get n nov
'vaporator l should have il made mi
way although the one we use works Yer
satisfactorily.
Another important feature of susa
making is the handling of the sap.
should be so arranged that the sap ca
be drawn from the gathering tub into tn
storage tank and from there INTO m
@vaporator and thus save all the handIin
POSSIBLE. At the price of labor now farm
ers cannot afford to dip sap from one n,
to another when it can lust as well ri
and give a good chance To strain. AS
marketing We generally have orders {,
:about all we make.-New England Hon
toad