. Literary pilgrimages of a naturalist. onthe distant blue summit of Haystack. It waseasy to note with what feathers and fur the earthkeeps herself warm in the fierce cold of Vermontwinters. In the distance the black growth ofevergreen spruce and hemlock would hardly letthe roughest gale pass within. Where these donot stand interwoven the misty mingling of thetwigs of deciduous trees made a cloak that wassoftly beautiful to the eye yet hardly less pene-trable, and over all the cleared spaces and underall other protection was the white ermine of thesnow. The March sun and the thawing rains ofap
. Literary pilgrimages of a naturalist. onthe distant blue summit of Haystack. It waseasy to note with what feathers and fur the earthkeeps herself warm in the fierce cold of Vermontwinters. In the distance the black growth ofevergreen spruce and hemlock would hardly letthe roughest gale pass within. Where these donot stand interwoven the misty mingling of thetwigs of deciduous trees made a cloak that wassoftly beautiful to the eye yet hardly less pene-trable, and over all the cleared spaces and underall other protection was the white ermine of thesnow. The March sun and the thawing rains ofapproaching spring had settled this snow erminecloser to the ground, indeed, but had onlycompacted it more firmly. A foot or more of itwas everywhere and you could plunge to theshoulders in the drifts. Soon the gathering barrel was full and the horseplodded back to the sugar house, where from thehillside the sap ran into the sapholder, a twenty-one barrel cask propped up within, thence to goby gravity through a tube to the pan. Here the. VERMONT MAPLE SUGAR 173 elder Grimes was busy, feeding the roaring firewith four-foot sticks, skimming the scum fromthe boiling sap and drawing the syrup into galloncans at the other end. Sugar making is no job fora lazy man, even though the pan regulates theflow of the sap automatically, nor is it nowadaysto be conducted without some capital. The plantis a small one, yet here, counting house, tools,tanks, pan, buckets, etc., was an investment whicheasily figured up a thousand dollars. The clearliquid from the trees ran in a steady stream, andthe boiling sap bubbled and frothed in one endand collected in palest amber shallows in the that the run is started from eight to thirtybarrels of sap a day will come to the sugar house,taxing the powers of the sugar maker to the ut-termost to keep ahead of the flow. It does notdo for the sap to wait. The best syrup is madefrom it when first collected and it will spoil ifthe delay before boiling is
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booki, booksubjectnaturalhistory
