out of the vessels. I asked them if they
were not throwing away the sugar? they
said no; it was water they were casting
away, sugar did not freeze and there was
scarcely any in that ice.... I observed that
after several times freezing, the water that
remained in the vessel, changed its colour
and became brown and very sweet.
Syrup Production From colonial times to the
20th century, sugar producers collected the
sap by punching a small hole in the maple
tree, inserting a wooden or metal spout into
the cambium, and hanging a bucket into which
the sap dripped. This picturesque collection
method has mostly given way to systems of
plastic taps and tubing, which carry the sap
from many trees to a central holding tank.
Over a six-week season, the taps remove
around 10% of a tree’s sugar stores, in an
average of 5 to 15 gallons/20–60 liters per
tree (some give as much as 80 gallons). It
takes around 40 parts of sap to make 1 part
barry
(Barry)
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