The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-03-31

manufacturer may mingle refined sugar
with the maple product, but generally,
the light colored product is due to cleaner
methods of manufacture and to vigorous
stirring as the syrup begins to crystalline
The writer remembers a man, perhaps
Il little more careless than Others in his
work, of whom it used to be said that
when he would stick to the side of the
sugar house if thrown against it sugaring
was half done. Sugaring in those days
was sticky work, but today the properly
conducted sugar house is as clearly as a
dairy,
It's pleasant work, though hard,
sugaring. The mildness of spring is in
the air. A few returning birds chirp
about the camp. An occasional squirrel
chatters from the trees. \ raccoon
awakened from his winters nap may
sometimes be seen, attracted by the
sweet odors of the boiling sap. There
are visitors a plenty and sugar parties
and games and singing, and on the whole
the sugar season savors something of a
prolonged picnic.
But it doesn't last long. AS the
wea thcr grows warmer the flow of sap
grows slower 1t is where the frost let's
90 its hold slowly and reluctantly that
the finest sugar is made, and though the
sugar maple is found in nearly every part
OF The country, it is only in the colder
sections that maple sweets can be made
satisfactorily. So when the nightly freez-
ing stops the flow OF sap diminishes, and
when the weather has become warm
enough for the buds of the maple to start
ever so little, sugaring is ended, for besides
the decrease of the sap flow the favor
is spoiled After final sugaring off the
utensils are cleaned and packed away
and the sugar house is locked up until
another season.
A maple grove is beautiful place ii
summer, for the maple is one Of the
/ handsomest of forest trees, with it,
symemtrical shape and large eXpanse o.
/ foliage while the underbrush is kept
cleared away and the paths through the
wood are as clean as gravel walk. This
great expanse of foliage accounts for the
heavy flow Of sap from the maple. In
vestigation has shown that the leaf area
has more to do with the amount of saE
flow than any Other factur hence the
desrability OF keeping the grove wei
thinned so that the crowns may nave
room to expand.
No one knows what gives the m2plj
products their distinctive flavor Gaze
sugar has simply sweet taste, but who
ever has eaten the real maple product
will never forget the peculiar tang
I it has. This was dstasteful to the early
settlers and bars the maple sugar from
ordinary use, making it a luxury Chem
| lists have analyzed and studied without
avail in search for the peculiar component
that creates the flavor, but can only say
that it is probably an ether or aldehydc
possessing high boiling point, The
constituents of the sap as revealed by
chemical analysis are water sugar, lime
potash, magnesia, iron and some vege-
| table acids, but the foundation of the
flavor remains elusive The sap contains
about three percent of sugar and the
largest proportion ever reported was
1912 percent The ordinary tree viii
produce II gallons of sap or three pounds
of sugar in a season, though some produce
much more. There is authentic record Of one
tree that produced 30 and three-fourth'
pounds Of cake sugar in one season anc
another that gave l75 gallons OF sap
The sap of the first tree was so sweet
that seven quarts made pound OF sugar
The pressure Of the flowing sap il
tha lav tino IL about 20 hounds to th,