ight parts, that the soot may be
cleared out. Each end should be made tight, with a flange nailed to
the box. At the mouth of the large part there should be a door, to
reduce the draught; here make the fire, and at the other end have a
funnel to carry off the smoke. In this case, there is only sheet
copper between the fire and the sap which surrounds the funnel, so
that the heat is readily taken up by the liquid, and very little
escapes. This is an economical plan for cooking food for stock,
steaming timber, &c.

For catching the sap, various kinds of vessels are used. The
cheapest are made of white birch, which last one season, or less.
Troughs of pine, or linden or bass wood, may be made for a few cents
each, and they will last for a number of years, if inverted in the
shade of trees. But these are inconvenient; and, after the first
year, they become dirty, and clog the sap. Pails with iron hoops are
the best, and, eventually, the cheapest. By painting and carefully
preserving them, they will cost, for a course of years, about one
cent each for a year.

Mr. Alfred Fitch, in the "Genesee Farmer," says:--

In clarifying, I use for 50 lbs. of sugar one pint of skimmed milk,
put into the syrup when cold, and place it over a moderate fire
until it rises, which should occupy thirty or forty minutes; then
skim and boil until it will grain; after which I put it into a tub,
and turn on a little cold water, and in a few days the molasses will
drain out, and leave the sugar dry, light, and white.

Mr. E.W. Clark, of Oswego, furnishes the following:--

_On Fining Maple Sugar_.--The sweet obtained from the maple tree is
undoubtedly the purest known; but from mismanagement in the
manufacture it frequently becomes very impure. Its value is
lessened, while the expense of making it increases. I am sensible
that the method which I shall recommend is not altogether a new one,
and that it is more by attending to some apparently minute and
trivial circumstances, than to any new plan, that my sugar is so
good. Much has been written upon, and many useful improvements been
made in, that part of the process which relates to tapping the
trees, and gathering and evaporating the sap, &c.; but still, if the
final operation is not understood, there will be a deficiency in the
quality of the sugar. I shall