Production of Maple Sirup and Sugar.

11

apart, giving 1,210 trees to the acre. The small seedlings may be bought, or they may be gathered from the woods, preferably in wet weather. When this is done, care should be taken to select thrifty specimens, not more than 2 feet high, and to plant them immediately.

When the young trees reach a height of about 10 feet and begin to crowd one another, the grove should be treated in the same manner as that recommended for the wild sapling thicket. This will give a maximum number of full-crowned trees to the acre, and the proper ground conditions will be maintained.

In most cases it will be well to cultivate the ground for one season, or possibly two, but the soil should acquire the forest character as soon as possible. Where that is not readily attainable, a maple grove is not likely to pay.

In some places it may be advisable to mix with the maple a number of quick-growing trees valuable for posts or farm lumber, in order to secure early returns on the investment. The best species to use in this way can be determined only for definite localities. Advice in such cases will be furnished willingly by the U. S. Forest Service, by State foresters, or by local county agricultural agents.

## OPENING THE SUGAR GROVE.

In the spring, when preparing for the opening of the sugar season, or during the fall of the year before, roads should be cut through the bush. Any brush that is in the way should be cut down, and any holes that might overturn the cart of sap should be filled. In laying out the roads through the woods some plan that will make every portion of the bush accessible should be followed, so that when the sap is running fast and many sap buckets quickly fill the gathering pail, it will not be necessary to carry the pail far to empty it into the hauling tank. Roads accessible to all parts of the bush give more assurance that all the sap buckets will be visited each day during the sugar season.

## TAPPING THE TREES.

### LOCATION AND CHARACTER OF TAP HOLES.

Before tapping, the side of the tree should be brushed with a stiff broom to remove all loose bark and dirt and a spot where the bark looks healthy, some distance from the scar of a previous tapping, should be selected. Care should also be taken to tap where a bucket attached to the spout inserted in the hole will hang level and be partly supported by the tree. For convenience, the hole should be about waist high. It is usually best to tap on the side of the tree where other trees do not shade the spot. In general, the south side of a tree is best for earliest runs, as the sun shines on this side first. The east side is next best. Some makers believe that holes on the north side flow longest.

In tapping a tree, a sharp bit with which a clean-cut hole can be made is necessary. If rusty and dull, the bit cuts a rough, feathered hole, which soon becomes foul, stopping the flow. After the tapping all shavings should be removed to make the hole clean. The bark should never be cut away before boring the hole, as this shortens the life of the tree.

AFTER 5 DAYS RETURN TO

JAN 14

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7947

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Sunday 13 April '47

Dear Sir,

I shall see Robert Frost tomorrow and convey the
messages you sent to me in your wife's last letter. Mr Frost
has not been here in Hanover since last November. He is here
in Hanover only in November and April. "Here" in an official
capacity, that is. Mr Frost arrived in town last week and I
saw in the paper that he desires to meet with his seminar
students on Monday.

The first warm weather has drifted into New Hampshire
and, although bits of dirty snow still hide in the shadows, Spring
is well on the way. Yesterday afternoon my wife and I obeyed
the call and went cycling across the Connecticut River to
the friendly little town of Norwich, Vermont. Amoung other
indications of the season we found that the maple trees were
hung with sap buckets. At one point we left out bicycles and
walked to a saphouse where we found a farmer "evap'ratin'!" A
nice old fellow, he was most kind in telling us the process
by which he eventually gets a few gallons of maple syrup. The
farmers are certainly very little less aware of seasonal change
than the sleepy woodchucks which are newly awakened from their
slumber.

I await letters from Italy to hear of Spring. Two years
ago I was there, travelling just a bit, seeing people and places
and always liking Italy.

In thinking of Italy I am reminded of something I
read last week. Virginia Woolf in her *Jacob's Room* says some
rather uncomplimentary things about Italy which led me to wonder
just how much of the country she had seen. I felt that her

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appraisal was awfully unfair; and yet I know that she must have
seen something of the land. Could it be that she was wearing English
spectacles all of the time?

I have been doing quite a bit of reading of late in the
English authors many of whom I imagine you knew. Joyce, Lawrence(D.H.)
Conrad, May Sinclair, Rebecca West. I am also studying Chesterton,
Bennett, Kipling, Wells and C.B. Shaw. It is all a rather large
offering but I believe that the course is sound. There is no
coercion as to whom we shall read. Our only limitation is the
period of from about 1895 on to the present.

I have started upon a novel of my own. It is my first and
I find it quite a departure from the short story in that I have
so many little annoying loose ends to tie in with the central.
Very briefly it is the story of a soldiers adjustment upon his
homecoming. Of course the plot is not new but I often wonder about
any great effort to be wholly original---is it possible???? I
write as it comes out. If my unconscious gives me something that
has been done before I respect the discrimination of that part of
my mind;if it does happen to evolve something that seems to be
original-well and good. In a recent bit of writing I found it
expedient to use a bit, just a bit, of a stream of consciousness.
I did. I received an all but intelligible comment from an instructor
which seemed to add up to the fact that since others, so many others,
had used that medium that it was trite for me to use it. I don't
believe it. I have read some of Joyce and I don't at all mind using
what has been called his medium----if it comes from my own mind.

My returned soldier is the bearer of very serious facial
scars which supply the fulcrum upon which my story will rest. His
initial solution to his adjustment problem resolves itself into
actual flight from the reality of a pitying family and inquisitive

-3-

people in general. He retreats from the tempest of New York to the serenity of Vermont. There in the Vermont hills he, after much stumbling, straightens out with the realization that he must face reality by plunging, headlong, into the world of people. There in the Hills also he finds love. The love that he must have-- a very special love--a love devoid of pity.

I have been in the midst to trying to select a graduate school for the last several months and seem to be getting nowhere. In my letters to various graduate schools I have emphasized that I want to get something out of my Master's Degree work. That seems a bit revolutionary, I am afraid. I want to spend my year of study not in some musty pedantic work but in work which will be an aid to me in writing. In the end I shall probably take all of the study in literature. I am writing to Oxford this week. A friend of mine suggested that I might well study there not only for the studied material but also for the way of life. I am a believer in "ways if life" and so it interests me.

Please don't feel compelled to write but I would enjoy hearing from you.

P.S. I have written to my friend John Gruesen.

The universities are a curse/ inducing young men into recondite research instead of steering them straight to what is needed. Great need of italian translation of Mencius / who was so good in all countries is to enslave, make men dependent of complicated slave institutions. The need is to UNDERSTAND Confucio and Mencio not to dig up rarities. What became of Tucci? Yang's friend Tcheou? and his son, whom one thought was v.pres of some instituto of cultura? that another Tcheou?

With the Legge Ig/ has all he needs to make a good trans/ of Mencius IF he follows the root meanings in my Studio and Asse / (of terms)

Hired scholars are suspect. /

Would be useful and even payful to get reprint of Studio and Asse ( even changing title to IL REHMANN PERNO. M. can have what comes in. Scheiwiller, publishing under title Scalini di Grigna, home at 6 via Melzi d'Eril Milano, is printing again / but doubt if he pays anyone.

Vicari was ready to print some of M's translations of Cantos / a few of which were in shape years ago. Berti seems to have been too scared to get his translations of short poems published. Of course high time other EP was published in italian