Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 March 1905 — MAKING MAPLESUGAR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MAKING MAPLESUGAR

INDUSTRY WHICH FLOURISHES IN THE EARLY SPRING. Much of the Genuine Product Is Made in the Green Mountain State—Teams Sometimes Employed in Gathering the Sap—Picturesque Sngar Camp. The little brown loaves of maple sugar which find their way into market are made up in largest quantity in the woods of Vermont. The making of the sugar is not confined to that region alone, for wherever maple trees are found in sufficient numbers to make the tapping of them profitable, the sap is drawn therefrom and boiled into sugar. Then, there is the “maple” sugar manufactured from corncobs and

ordinary broom sugar, but that is another story. However, much of the genuine ma-, pie sugar used in this country is made in the Green Mountain State. The Industry is no longer as picturesque as It once was, because many of the least practical features have been eliminated, and there is not so much of sport connected therewith as formerly, but from a description given

by a writer In the Cosmopolitan, one may safely say that if there is a reasonable amount of help to do the work, life in a maple sugar camp is something of a picnic. ° In Northern Vermont the season begins about March 1 and lasts from four to six weeks. The most favorable weather for the flow of sap is a succession of cold', frosty nights followed by warpi, sunny days. After several days of gbod running weather, during which the freely, the yield grows less and less*iintil a storm, either of swSav or rain, seems to give the trees renewed life. With the swelling of the first buds the flow ceases entirely. A good tree, under favorable circumstances, will yield from four to five gallons of sap in twentyfour hours, delivered drop by drop into the buckets bung against the rough bask. „Tjhe “sugar place” selected, the work begins early in March, the sugar house

having been located upon a little rise of land, so that the water from the melting snow will drain away. If the snow is not deep, a well-trained horse, or a yoke of oxen, has been brought into the Woods, with a stock of hay and grain to feed it, and Is comfortably quartered in a shed, built against the side of the sugar house. If its help ••an be employed, the work Is made much easier, for, hitched to a Rout sled, it draws the buckets about the forests to be scattered to the trees, and. later, draws back to the camp the sap as It Is gathered. Very often, however, the snow for the first week or two Is too deep for a horse or an ox to got about, and all the work must be done by men on snow shoes. Mounted upon his stout, conrae snow shoes, which are strongly strapped to hl* thick boots, the sugar maker poises upon one shoulder a stack of buckets as heavy ns he can carry and starts off with them, leaving one or two at the foot of every ma'ple tree. As soon as the sap begins to flow It must be gathered and brought to the sugar house to boil. In this work "sap buckets,” ns shown In the tllustmtion, are employed. Gathering the Hap. As a general thing, however, the •now has melted sufficiently by the

time the gathering begins to allow thei use of horses or oxen. The latter are still frequently employed and they add something to the pioturesqueneas of the work. Roads are broken out in every direction through the woods, and along these the horses or oxen draw a stout sled made with wooden shoes so as to go with almost equal ease over bare ground or snow. Upon this sled is fastened a big tub called the “drawtub.” Into tlds the sap is gathered, being poured from the Duckets at the tjees ar.ijL brought to the sled in pails. The draw-tub Is made largest at the bottom, so as to sit firmly upon the sled, and chained down. When the gathering team reaches th’e sugar house the contents of the draw-tub are pumped or dipped out and carefully strained into huge tubs called holders. Thence the sap is put into the boiling pans and after several hours boiling the contents become a syrup—a thick brown liquid half way between sap and molasses. The syrup Is then taken out, carefully strained and put away in clean wooden tubs to cool and settle. If the product is to be marketed as maple syrup, it is simply boiled until of the required thickness, and then put into the gallon tin cans in which it is to be shipped. If sugar is to be made, the boiling is continued for a length of time which varies according to the form into which it is to be finished. There are various ways of telling when the sugar is boiled enough. An experienced maker can tell by the thickness as it drips from the edge of a wooden paddle which he has dipped into it. When it has reached a certain consistency a snowball held firmly and dipped into it comes out capped with a thin brown coating, delicious to be eaten. This is called "waxing it,” and Is the favorite form for eating. When the cry goes up from some watcher who has been experimenting, “It’s ready to wax,” the visitors leave their various occupations of whittling,

story telling, et cetera, and crowd Into the sugar house, bringing with them buckets which they have filled with clean snow from some belated drift. The hot brown syrup soon cools upon the snow where it Is poured, and it Is then eaten with a small wooden paddle. He who has once eaten it under such conditions and surroundings will ever taste anything quite so delicious elsewhere. Going from the fire-lighted interior of the sugar house to the outside is like going into another world, a fresh, pure world, of which most of us know nothing. The air is crisp, and clear, and cold. All about stand huge trees of the original forest, no one knows how many years old, their gray-white trunks rising in the dim like pillars in some vast cathedral. Far above, the stars shine through the interlacing branches. Or perhaps the moon is clear out, flooding all the place with a clear light which dissipates the lurking illusions of the starlight, but replaces them with a bewildering tangle of light and shadow which is no less beautiful. Unless there is a murmuring brook near by, the silence is intense. until, far lutck on the mountain side, an owl sounds forth his deep, reverberating call.

THE SUGAR CABIN.

GATHERING THE MAPLE SIRUP IN THE FOREST.

A TWICE-TAPPED TREE.