forms of spouts used by writer, after trials of many sorts, are the conical (Fig. 653), made of heavy tin, and the flanged (Fig. 654). Spouts are on sale at hardware stores in the maple regions and are advertised in agricultural papers. The spout in Fig. 653 is cheaper in first cost, but the one in Fig. 654 is more durable and offers less obstruction to the flow of the sap. The writer uses the spout in Fig. 653 in a three-eighths-inch hole the first half or third of the season, then rims the holes with a one-half-inch curve-lip Cook bit and uses the spout in Fig. 654. The rimming freshens the drying hole and increases the flow of sap, and does not wound and injure the tree as boring a new hole ; and the partly soured spout is removed. In Ohio, the tapping should be gin the first bright, warm day after February 15, and the season lasts sometimes until April 10, or as long as frosty nights or snow-storms are fol lowed by warm days ; hence the need of freshening or rimming the holes and removing the partly soured spouts. The spout shown in Fig. 653 has now been made heavier and longer, so that it answers for seven-sixteenths and one-half inch re tapping.
Buekets.—The buckets should be of "IX" tin, very slightly smaller at the bottom than at the top so as to "nest" into each other, in nests of twenty or more, for convenience in handling. They should hold twelve quarts each. Each bucket should have a three-fourths-inch hole punched through the tin close under its wire rim, to slip over the spout to hang the bucket firmly on and against the tree. The bucket should be covered tightly, to exclude rain, insects, dirt and the like, and to prevent the sap freezing on cold nights and souring on warm days.
Covers.—The cheapest and best covers, all things considered, are home-made, of boards 12 x 12 inches square, planed on both sides and all edges, and painted. Home-grown lumber and winter work reduce the cash cost. By painting one side red and the other side white and reversing each cover as the sap is gathered from the bucket, mistakes and omissions in gathering are avoided and when two men are gathering much time is saved from useless travel. If a tree is missed, the (wrong) color of its bucket cover reveals the mistake ; and two trips need never be taken to the same bucket, in doubt as to whether its sap has been taken.
The writer knows of no one thing more I essential to the production of first-class syrup in the variable Ohio climate than covers, and the bicolored covers are a great con venience in gathering, washing buckets at the trees, and in other ways.
should begin each "sugar day" as soon as there is a quart or more of sap in each bucket. The sooner and the faster the sap is
boiled after it leaves the tree, the better is the syrup.
and tank is of gal van:zed iron. three feet in diameter and three feet deep, stands on end and holds four barrels. The sled, commonly known locally as a "stone-boat sled," has heavy runners six inches wide, two cross beams and two raves, and a flexible pole. The tank has a two-inch galvanized-iron tube, three feet long, attached by a piece of rubber hose to the bot tom of one side. In gathering, its outer end is hooked up to the top of the tank to prevent leakage. In emptying, it is unhooked and dropped into the funnel-shaped receiver of the long three-inch tin conductor, and runs the sap into the store-troughs, shown in Fig. 655. The funnel-shaped receiver is shown in Fig. 656.
The can and sled are drawn by a team among the trees in gathering. In emptying the sap, the man stands facing the bucket, holds the gathering-pail in his left hand, holds the bucket cover under his left arm, grasps the bucket rim with his right hand, revolves it on its spout as a pivot, empties it, re turns the cover (reversed), carries and empties the sap into the near-by gathering-tank, and goes to the next bucket or tree. Neither the cover, the bucket, nor the pail should ever touch the ground, nor the bucket leave its spout. It saves much time and backache, and dirt in the sap.
From the time the sap is lifted and poured into the gathering-tank human muscle does not handle it again. It runs down the slope (Fig. 655) through an automatic float-regulator and into and through the evaporator (Fig. 652), and runs as finished syrup from the chimney end of the evaporator.
Sugar camps are usually on rolling land, and there is no trouble but great advantage in locating the sugar-house on a slope. If the slope is slight, the two store-troughs may be placed end to end up the slope and connected by a tall siphon, and a rather long conductor used from the gathering-tank to the first store-trough. The essential feature is that the bottom of the last store-trough shall be a little higher than the top edge of the evaporator, inside the sugar - house. The store- troughs should be wholly outside of the sugar-house, except the mere end plank of the lower one, lest the heat and steam inside slightly sour the sap and hurt the quality of the syrup. And the store-troughs should have covers, like the buckets, to protect from heat (some times cold), and to keep out rain, insects, and the like. The writer prefers painted wooden store troughs to galvanized iron ones, as wood is a non conductor and excludes heat and cold, which would sour or freeze the sap.