Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-04-11

~ 4 s4-sazii2S eff Mere Gnne.-hX
European peasants. Americans
would have been treking across
the ocean to participate in g quaint
and fascinating custom. But over
night from New York there Is a
landscape and a climate that. in
these early days in April. beats
any European Winter resort with
which I am familiar. And now is
maple-Slgar time.
Outside my north window in the
sitting room, the thermometer
records temperature Of 40
degrees. At noon il must have been
SO. The sky is brilliantly blue and
little rails Of water dance along
the sides Of the roads, the slopes
Of the hills are brown. where the
snow has melted away. but on the
level places it is still ? feet deep
and where paths have beer, ettt
through il. they lie between snow
walls shoulder-high.
TIVE shadows Of the bare trees
L are blue and purple and even
rose. depending on the light; the
spruces on the mountains are black
against the azure. There is the in
describable fresh smell of melting
Winter. and IT seepS through
briefly opened doors into house
that in its hundred years of life
has never been heated by anything
but wood. and so inside as well as
outside retains the odors of the
forest. Contrary TO all ideas of
human progress. il must be re-
corded that il is a coy house,
utterly comfortable. though that
comfort requires that morning,
noon. and night. chunks of spruce
and maple be hurled into the hot
air furnace and logs of birth and
apple on the open fires.
But the Spring sun, made more
brilliant by the snow, streaming
u through the east, south and
vest windows as II makes il Sc
cate rounds. is heating plant in
itself.
/ wanted to take my son, for
fs Spring holidays, to Washing
ton and Williamsburg, but he said,
no, he wanted TO 60 home. Home
for him is the white house in Yer
mont, and the farm. the dogs, the
cows, the chickens, the ridiculous
ducks, the cupboards of old toys
in the big. rag-carpeted room.
Home is no apartment in New
York. and no place in any city.
HIS trousers are tucked into
mail-order house boots. his sweater
is very Spotty, and he is perfectly
happy.
The farmers wife cooks for US
-fricassee Of home grown chicken,
some OF her own canned green
beans. picked beets. and apple pie.
There are barrels fun of apples in
the cellar, still sound and sappy
in April - Northern SpyeS. that
: EPurt juice.
ONE can walk off noon meal
" like that, trudging up the hill
10 the sugar house. Its a pull on
the legs and a pull on the lungs,
that hill. The horse and sleigh
going up to the sugar house have
cut ruts in which we walk. but
every once in a while a patch of
packed snow gives way and we
are in to the knees. t-
The sugar house Is small and
red with a lean-to in which wood
IS stored for the brick kiln that
runs right through the center of
the house. Steam is coming out
through the little open cupola in
the middle of the roof, so we know
The syrup IS boiling.
Outside the chestnut horse is
stamping in the snow. and steam
ing from his exertions. The little
red sugar house stands in the
middle Of a grove Of trees with
trunks like cathedral columns
immense naples. Many of them
hundred years old. Buckets with
little peaked hoods over them are
shiny against the gray trunks. Ny
child scoops out a cupful Of the
fiat. swedish sap. Not running
good today" says the neighboring
farmer who Is helping out. A
good freezing night and a hot day
is what makes II run. Too much
wind and the trunks still too deep
in snow.
CTILL, they have collected n
y thankful The tank is of zinc
and is mounted on a cart on sleigh
runners. II is covered, except fol
q perforated bucket in the center
into which the sap buckets are
poured
Then Il is drawn 70 the house
q runway Of boards has been con-
structed. leading 10 an aperture
in the wall just above the brick
Kiln. and the sap is siphoned from
The tank into a pipe that empties
= into the bofief. THE boiler Il
made Of zinc and fits the TOD Of
the long brick kiln that is fec
with logs through an iron door ir
one end. The boiler is a hug.
pan Of zinc. divided into com.