Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/21

15 into the hole a wooden tube, and place a trough under it to receive the water. Large kettles being placed in the most convenient situation among the trees, and a fire made under them, the water is brought in buckets, where it is moderately boiled, until it comes to a consistency which scarcely admits of any longer stirring with a stick made for that purpose. It is then removed from the kettle, and is still constantly stirred until it is cold. As it cools it granulates and becomes bright and dry. The grain of this sugar, made at the beginning of the season, very much resembles the sugar made in Louisiana from the sugar cane, and not inferior to the best Musquevado. The quality of the sugar depends much on care and cleanliness in making of it. The season for making, and the time it continues, varies according to the state of the weather. It generally commences in February and continues about six weeks. When the trees are at a distance from the house, a camp is formed in a central place among the trees, and is called the sugar camp. The whole family sometimes resorts to this camp, and women and children assist in making the sugar. In camps consisting of one hundred and fifty to two hundred trees, have been made from five hundred to a thousand pounds of sugar, in one season. An average price of the sugar may be about ten cents per pound. Sugar has been made late in autumn, after frosts or falls of snow, but it depends on the weather.