The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-03-31
FRU|TSOF THE MAPLE
How the Vermont Sugar
Is Prepared For the
Consumer
A GIFT from INDIANS
Valuable Invention by Wyram Chase
OF Calais-The Component Parts Of
Sap-Proiits of Sugar Making.

OF Calais-The Component Parts Of
Sap-Proiits of Sugar Making.
Modern civilization has received three
gifts of value from the Indian aborigines
who had no civilization tobacco, maize and
maple sugar Their processes Of cult
walton and manufacture were crude and
not over clearly but their products pos
.sesscd desirability that early explorers
were quick to appreciate.
The story of the discovery of maple
sweets by the Indians is "A pleasing fancy,
though hardly worthy place with Charles
Lambs story of the origin of roast pig.
The Indian legend runs that a squaw, too
busy, lazy or weary to chop hole through
the ice for water to cook her husbands
dinner one spring day, filled the wooden
cooking dish with the sap running from
great maple, which had been wounded
by blow from a tomahawk, and boiled
his meat in the sap As the liquid boiled
down it parity crystalliaed and when
she served it to her lord it had the appear
ance of having burned or as housewives
say, stuck on The chief plunged his
fingers in the dish and noting its con-
sistency sprang up to give his sqaw the
chastisemcnt due one who has neglected
her housewifely duties and spoiled her
husbands dinner As he sprang up he
clapped his fingers in his mouth. The
unaccustomed taste gave him pause He
tried it again His wrath disappeared.
He sat down and finished the dish. The
squaw, emboldencd by the evident salts
faction of her lord told him what she had
do le, and henceforth to her burdens was
added that OF making maple sugar every
spring
Now each year, as winter first begins to
loose its icy grasp, as the days grow longer
and the air more mild, as the earth first
begins to feel the approaching throes of the
annual miracle of resurrection, as the
first throbbing impulse Of new life is
dsccrned beneath the deep protecting
white mantle of winter, the sap of the
maple begins to flow more freely. From
Canada down through New England, as
far south rs Pennsylvania and as far west
as the Ohio Valley the drip OF the sap is
heard and the smoke and steam are seen
rising from thousands of sugar houses.
There are nearly 10000 farmers in the
United States who engage in producing
maple sugar or syrup in quantities large
enough to be reported to the census bur-
eau. The annual product amounts to
more than $1,000 600 pounds of sugar and
100000 gallons of syrup, the total value
of the product heing more than 100000
The Indians tapped their trees by the
simple process of making a cash with a
tomahawk and collecting the sap in dishes
made of birch or elm bark or OF followed
logs. Some of them had large tanks of
elm bark containing several gallons, in
which they stored sap until ready to boil
it, but most of them boiled the sap as soon
as collected by throwing heated stones
into the bucket
The process was sometimes varied by
allowing the sap to freeze and throwing
out the ice until the residue required but
little boiling.
The early settlers used methods almost
ut primitive as those of the Indians,
They cut a deep cash in the tree, inserted
a chip which formed ledge or shelf
over which tn sap ram and collected
it in pals, buckets or whatever utensils
were at hand. They had the advantage
over the Indians OF possessing copper
or iron kettles for boiling, but in that
alone did they possess any improvements.
The sap was boiled in the open air,
exposed to the weather. and in the pro-
cess Of boiling chips, leaves pieces Of bark
and various kinds Of dirt fell into it.
The sugar was as black as navy plug
tobacco, while that manufactured today
is golden brown.
The sugar maker today uses tools and
methods carefully devised to ensure
cleanliness and uniformity OF product
There are q number of manufacturing
concerns in the country making sugar
maker tools and three of these com
panies are situated Ia Vermont Instead
of an axe the mo iern sugar maker taps
his trees with thrae-eighths inch bit
Instead Of a chip ora wooden spout he
inserts a small galvanized iron spout with
II hook on the lower side. Instead Of an
open bucket OF bark, wood or metal
placed on the ground, from which squirrels
and raccons may drink, he hangs from
the spout a tin or galvanized iron bucket
with cover that keeps out snow, rain
bark, leaves and all eXtraneous matter
Instead of laboring through the sugar
bush on snow shoes with sap yoke on
his shoulders to gather the sap he has q
road constructed along which he may
drive a pair of horses with a sap tank in
which the sap is conveyed to the sugar
house. Or if his grove is situated properly
he constructs pipe line that the sap runs
directly to the storage tank at the sugar
house. Instead of an uncovered kettle
I'm the omen air he uses n modern eVapOr-