The winter was drawing to an end. It had not appeared very long, after
all--everybody had been so busy. Michael and his sons were now at work
cutting-out troughs for sugar making. In Canada the maple yields a sap
which, when boiled, turns into sugar. A number of maple-trees together
is called a sugar-bush. The troughs are made of pine, black ash, or
butter-nut, and each holds three to four gallons of sap.
The snow was still on the ground, when early in March, Michael and his
sons, and Susan and Fanny and Tommy set off with their sugar kettles,
pails, ladles, big store troughs, small troughs, and moulds, to the
sugar-bush two miles from the house. They first built huts for the
kettles and for themselves; fixed the store trough and cut a supply of
fuel for the fires. They next tapped the maple-trees on the south side,
with an auger of an inch and a half. Into this hole a hollow spile was
driven. Under each spile a trough was placed. As soon as the sun grew
warm the sap began to flow and drop into the troughs. The girls and
boys had soon work enough to empty the troughs into a large cask on the
sleigh. This, when full, was carried to the boiling-sheds and emptied
into the store trough. From this the kettles are filled and kept
boiling night and day, till the sap becomes a thin molasses. It is then
poured into pails or casks, and made clear with eggs or milk stirred
well into it. The molasses are now poured again into the boilers over a
slow fire, when the dirt rises to the top, and is skimmed off. To know
when it has boiled enough, a small quantity is dropped on the snow. If
it hardens when cool it has been boiled enough. It is then poured into
the moulds, when it quickly hardens and is ready for use. Very good
vinegar can be made by boiling three pails of sap into one, and then
adding some yeast, still better is made from the sap of the birch; beer
is made both from maple and birch sap, and a flavour given by adding
essence of spruce or ginger. Boiling the sap and molasses requires
constant attention, as there is a danger of their boiling over.
While Michael and Rob attended to the boiling, David and Tommy drove the
sleigh, and the rest took care of the troughs. They had a large number
of troughs, and some were a long way from the boiling-sheds.
Michael and his son had filled the kettles, which they did not expect
would boil for some little time, when Tommy came running up to say that
the sleigh had stuck fast between two stumps, and that he and David
could not clear it, while one of the oxen had fallen down and hurt
itself against a log. On bearing this, Michael and Rob, thinking that
there would be plenty of time to help David, and to get back before the
sugar boiled, ran to assist him. They found the sleigh firmly fixed,
and it took them longer to clear it than they had expected it would.
They had just got it clear, when a loud bellow reached their ears from
the direction of the boiling-sheds. Leaving David and Tommy to manage
the oxen, Michael and Rob ran back to their charge. They arrived in
time to see one of their cows, with her muzzle well covered with
molasses, galloping off through the bush, followed by her companions,
while the kettle lay upset, the contents streaming out on the fire, and
burning away, and threatening to set all the sheds in a blaze. The cows
had found their way into the bush, and being fond of sugar, one of them
had put her muzzle into the boiling liquid, little expecting to have so
warm a greeting.
"I hope it will teach her not to steal sugar for the future," observed
Michael, as he and his son righted the kettle. They had to pull down
some of the shed before they could put the fire out; but such trifling
events were too common in the bush to disturb their tempers, and they
were thankful that matters were no worse.
Just before this, a neighbour's cow had got into his sugar-bush and
drank so much cold molasses that she burst and died. Michael determined
another year to enclose his sugar-bush to prevent any such accidents.
In two weeks enough sugar was made to last the family all the year, to
make all sorts of preserves, besides a good supply of beer and vinegar.
With the vinegar they could pickle onions, and all sorts of vegetables,
for winter use. Vegetables are also preserved during the winter in
cellars, dug generally under the fire-place, in a log hut. A trap-door
leads to the cellar. Here potatoes, carrots, turnips, and other roots
are stored, and kept free from frost.
The snow at length melted, and spring came on as it were in a day. From
sunrise to sunset every man and boy was now hard at work, chopping,
burning, and clearing the ground to put in the spring crops. Not an
hour was to be lost, for the sun shone bright and warm, the grass sprang
up, the leaves came out, and flowers burst forth, and it seemed as if
the summer had begun as soon as the winter had ended. The summer was
hot, and soon ripened the crops, and the harvest was good and plentiful.