"Listen, now. Do you see the little hole in this maple?"
He pointed up at the gray trunk above his head. "We make a little
hole like that in every tree as soon as the sap begins to run in the
early spring. Then we drive into the hole this small piece of hollow
wood--it is like a trough, you see; and the sap runs through it
into the buckets we hang beneath. All day and all night it drips in
and each morning we go round and empty every pail into the cask we
carry on the sledge. The sap, as you see, is thin, because only part
of it is sugar; the rest is water. What we have to do is to boil
down the liquid until the part that is water goes off in vapor and
only the syrup is left. If we're after maple-syrup we let it cool
when it gets thick and later bottle it; but if we want sugar we must
boil the syrup still more until little crystals form in it."
"How can you tell when it has been boiled enough?" questioned Van.
"Oh, we've made it enough times to know," David replied. "Some folks
stick a thermometer into it and figger how hot it will have to be;
they say that's the best way. Others try the syrup in cold water or
on snow like you would candy. Generally speaking, I can tell by the
feel of it, and by the way it drips from the spoon. Sometimes,
though, when I'm in doubt I try it on snow myself. If it gets kinder
soft and waxy you can be sure it is getting done. If I was you
instead of tracking round emptying buckets I'd go in the sugar-house
and see 'em boiling the syrup.
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