MAXIMS FOR MAPLE SUGAR MAKERS.
Be in readiness to get the first run.
Have all utensils thoroughly cleansed and scalded.
Employ none but competent and experienced men to tap your trees.
Cut away the rough bark, only, before tapping, leaving bark sufficiently thick to hold the spout firmly to prevent leaking.
The finest flavor and lightest color will be obtained by shallow tapping.
Gather often, boil at once. Every delay in the process of evaporating sap will injure more or less the quality of the sugar.
Always strain your sap. Use felt strainers for syrup. Boil down to 11 pounds per gallon; test by a correct thermometer, and can hot to prevent crystalizing in bottom of the can.
Give full gallon measure and ship only standard goods to your best trade.
Use a reliable thermometer. It is as indispensable in the sugar house as in the dairy.
Use tin or painted buckets and the best improved metallic spout.
The bucket cover has come to stay. Use them, they will save their cost in one season.
Join your State Maple Sugar Makers’ Association, and attend the convention.
Do not think that you know it all, for maple sugar making is a science about which you may learn something every season if you are observing.
LARGE MAPLE SUGAR CAMP IN NORTHERN VERMONT.