Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 83, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1918 — Make Your Own Sugar [ARTICLE]

Make Your Own Sugar

By the U. S. Dept. Agriculture

By the use of ordinary kitchen equipment many people are in a position to make up the average of 81 pounds of sugar, which is the average each person in the United States used last yearj A few sugar maple trees, well-kept colonies of bees, a hundred feet of sugar beets raised In the garden, or a small patch of sweet sorghum, and surplus apples which might go to waste unless made into apple sirup may each be made to contribute to the sugar supply. The present limited sugar supply can be increased if many more families, in regions where the sugar maple grows, would each make maple sirup or sugar from ten or more maple trees. Ten trees, under ordinary conditions, can be expected to yield about four gallons of sirup or thirty pounds of sugar. Maple sugar making is an art the pioneer settlers of America learned from the Indians and for years it has been a home and farm industry. The process is not so complicated that anyone who has the opportunity need hesitate to try it. Find a sugar maple tree ten or more inches in diameter; bore a hole tjiree-eights of an inch or slightly more in diameter; insert a metal spout or one made by punching the pith from a section of elder; set a bucket under it that the sap may collect; boil this down ip a kettle or shallow pan on a kitchen stove to the proper density for maple sirup. If sugar is preferred, boil it down further until it is quite thick, taking care that it does not burn, and let it crystallize. “Sugar weather” often starts by the middle of February In the southern part of the sugar maple region. The first sap is sweetest. There is no time to be lost in talking; get ready to take advantage of the first warm, sunny days. “Old timers” say the outlook is good for a good sugar season.