Year: 1873

The season is at hand for maple sugar
making, and the following extracts from q
discussion bv a Vermont farmers club are
timely and suggestive. One member is re-
ported As saying: The secret of making
good sugar is having everything about the
manufacture clean and sweet. Buckets
holders and pans should all be thoroughly
lean, and with proper care first-clasS
srticle can be made A neighbor wished
me 10 stir of some sugar for him that he
might learn how to do it, | went to the
ueighhorS place. hut before | got within
twenty rods of his sugar house had found
ont why he could not make good sugar.
His buckets were sour, and it was impossi-
lie 10 make good sugar with sap gathered
from such buckets In putting up my
buckets | wash them in lime water and
rinse them well in boiling water. | used to
tap with three fourths inch bit, but now
n>e one-half inch; prefer the latter. Gen
orally bore three fourths inch deep. l use
about one load of wood to 100 pounds of
sugar Have no heaters, only common
sheet-iron pans. Strain syrup through
flannel Strainer; sugar off at once if l have
time, if not, as soon as possible; do not
use milk OF anything else for cleansing
sugar, use tin spouts mostly. Two pounds
tS a tree is a fair average yield. Hard
work 10 make sugar for man and teams.
Hardly think if had no sugar house or fix
tures that | should invest in that direction.
used to take pans on at night; now strain
and last thing at night fill up pans and let
them boil what they will, which will be
shout half the amount in the pans. For
merly thou hit this would color the sugar,
nnt do not think so now.


Another also urged that everything should
be- clean and sweet about n sugar place,
and said The Oftenpr Gather the
and the sooner it is got into sugar the
better The best ever made was sugared
Of the same day itwas boiled. Use one
half inch bit; deep boring Injuries the tree
more than shallow. Two to two and a half
pounds are average yields. Think 1T pays
We'll 10 make sugar.


Another said | think that heater, as
they are called, is great saving of wood.
4 have made from 500 to 500 pounds from
200 trees. Sap comes a drop at a time,
.d-t Ike farmers income. Save the drops.
NJ pays every farmer to make his sugar and
pT Jduce every thing possible that he con-
>Ume~ Lei lis see this year how much
wood Ne burn and how many days labor
we eXpeud. and we shall then know whether
it pays % make sugar Bought copper
wire ~tramer and did not like it. Better
pay 81. dollars to a good sugar-maker for
h.- -kiii than TO make poor sugar, as too
tLAUA 40 Like 10 nave the DeS. Oh uTp.
ha.d wood for sugAring of Great care
Il needed to have it lust right to stir; done
TOO much il is dry and sandy and flavor
ured; not dOue enough it is damp and
leaEv.


Another said The wood is an important
lem IN sugar making. Have had three
arc hes the iast | laid myself, which is a
great saver 0f wood over the others. In
stead of filing up tie space under the back
pau to six or eight inches, let it be left
level with the front arch, and the entrance
into the chimney should be some six or
eight inches lower than the bottom of the
pan The blaze will strike these obstruc-
lions, throwing the heat under the chimney,
making the top Of it the hottest place in
your whole arch. Heaters save one-fourth
nf the wood, AT least think sugar making
LAYS We'll | use old fence stuff for wood
hat Is worth little for anything else.


Another: | had on my farm in Water
lord a good rigging for boiling sap. Heat
ers back of the pans into which the sap was
put, and kept boiling and running into the
pans in front. What heat you get under
vour heaters is so much clear gain, as it
would pass out of the chimney. They will
pay for themselves in one season. A spout
made part of tin and part of gutta-p -percha
j. the best ! have used. Sugar making
: good paving business.


One gentleman said Transplanted ma
pies no not afford as much sap as natural
growth, but 1t i Sweetcr Sugar making,
iu my opinion, is the most profitable bust
ness Of the iafm. Like the moving ma
chine, it helps clean up the farm. Old
wood and rubbish, always accumulatng
upon the farm, is the very best for boiling
sap. But little remains to be said as the
subject has been fairly and ably handled.


object to tin buckets more likely to
sour than wood. Begin carly. The first
sugar made j. always good, while the last
4. always noor-hardv worth making.


4 remark was made by the Secretary
that one improvement had not been attend
td 10. viz. the building of cisterns under
ground, in which to put the sap when gath
cred, instead of the wooden holders in com
mon use. When another gentleman said,
ID response | had a cstern built, and
wouldn't take the gift of the best holders
in town and be obliged to use them. One
large enough to hold 500 pals of sap can be
constructed at small outlay-not half the
expense of holders of that capacity. Sap
will keep two weeks, sweet and cool, in a
cistern. Let it he placed upon side hill
above your sugar house, with pipe run
ming from the bottom of the cistern to your
pan. and You have handy apparatus, with
no dipping OF sap and waste thereby. No
sugar maker who has used one would do
without il at any reasonable price.