The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1926-03-25
WHEN THE MAPLE SUGAR
WATER Is RUNNING
Some Of The Rare Delights of
Sugar Making In the For
ests of Maple Trees.
Dearborn independently


Frosty night and thawy day
Make the maple pulses play,
Till congested with its sweetness,
1t delights to bleed away.
Perrin B. Fisk, 1860.
Maple sugar making in the old days
was far different process from that
used at present. In the region where
/ was reared expensive evaporating
pans and fire arches were unknown.
Northern Michigan was covered with
virgin hardwood forests; maple had
little value other than fireWood.
About the latter part of February
we would "feel the spring" in the air.
Noisy crows would congregate in the
tree tops. Mist was in the valleys,
and the sound of dripping from the
trees tinkled unsteady on the deep
crusted snow. A tinge of wood
smoke, hanging low, foretold rain
storm. The mellow light of the late
winter sun brought memories of the
Indian summer days of autumn.
Cold, frosty nights followed by
warm, sunny days brought ideal sugar
weather.
To tap the tree we chopped 16-
inch cash diagonally across the south
side about three feet from the earth.
Just below the base of the cut we
would drive the iron Spite maker two
inches into the tree. Removing the
iron from the cut, we would pound
into the incision a sharpened wooden
spite. The sap would run down the
cash and out on the Spite, dripping
from the end in a steady stream. For
sap containers we used shallow milk
pans eighteen inches in diameter and
five inches deep. These were blocked
level at the foot Of the tree. A sled
drawn by yoke of oxen was used to
collect the sap. On the sled were two
large barrels, with screened holes in
the top and each barrel had spigot
lledI tHe UOIlOLu
The sap was gathered in large pals
suspended from the ends of a wooden
yoke by means of a heavy cord or fine
chain, and stored in barrels about the
fire. 1t was boiled down in huge
black kettles, such as are used today
by the Negro mammies of Georgia
and Florida, to do their washing in
the open.
Ten feet from the open fire hard
wood post ten inches in diameter was
set into the grund extending five feet
above the surface. In the top Of this
post was driven an iron rod two iches
thick, extending eight inches above
the post top and exactly in the center.
A hardwood pole, nine inches thick
and twenty feet long, thoroughly
dried, was then laid on the post and
a two and a half-inch hole was drilled
into the pole six feet from the smaller
and lighter end. Through this hole the
iron rod stuck up an inch or so above
the horizontal pole. The kettle was
chained to the small end Of this pole.
The other end, being heavy, acted as
a counterbalance, making it an easy
matter to swing the kettle on or off
the fire to refill or empty.
The product was strained and
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Boiled in the open the o sirup was
somewhat darker than that boiled in
the evaporators. This was due, no
doubt, to the fact that rain-washed
twigs and bits of shaggy maple bark,
moss and other forms of "clean" dirt
would find it's way into the kettle. But
it was good After a lapse of twenty
years can still taste the maple taffy
we made by pouring the last of the
kettle boilings on the snow, where it
hardened.
AS the demand for maple strip
grew, the more enterprising farmers
and lunbermen replaced the old kettle
with the more modern evaporator.
This evaporator was a single shallow
pan, resting on an arch made of
stone mixed with clay. 1t was usually
built in the open, on hillside with
the hill dug out a bit for the back
end of the arch. The smokestack was
at the upper end to insure a good
draft. Sometimes it was built under
shed. The inflow of sap was regu-
lated by means of a stopcock on a
hose leading from a barrel containing
the oldest sap, placed at an elevation
above the evaporator. Later on the
single evaporation gave way to the
more modern evaporation divided into
sections.
As the sap became thicker it was
run from compartment to compart-
ment until the last pan held only sir
up. AS it thekened it was tested with
spoon to determine its proper con-
sistency. The sirup consistency is
governed by statute in Michigan and
the strip maker must test his finished
product with hydrometer. These
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