Cassell's dictionary of cookery

are made of white birch, which last one season, or less. Troughs of pine, or linden, or basswood may be had for a trifle 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 preserving them they will keep for many years. Maple Sugar, Pining of.— An Oswego authority remarks that, from mismanagement in the process of manufacture, maple sugar frequently becomes very impure. Its value is lessened, while the expense of making it is increased. " I am sensible," he adds, " that the method which I shall reconmiend 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 have 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 confine myself to that part of the operation which relates to reducing the syrup to sugar, as it is of the first importance. My process is this : — When the syrup is reduced to the consistenee of West India molasses, I set it away till it is perfectly cold, and then mix with it the clarifying matter, which is milk or eggs— I prefer eggs to milk. The eggs should be thoroughly beaten, and effectually mixed with the syrup while cold. The syrup should then be heated till just before it would boil, when the curd rises, bringing with it every impurity, even the colouring matter, or a great portion of that which it had received from the smoke, kettle, buckets, or reservoirs. The boiling should be checked, and the scum carefully removed, when the syrup should be slowly turned into a thick woollen strainer, and left to run through at leisure. I would remark that a great proportion of the sugar that is made in our country is not strained after cleansing. This is an error. If examined in a wine-glass, innumerable minute and almost imperceptible particles of curd will be seen floating in it, which, if not removed, render it liable to bum, and otherwise injure the taste and colour of it. A flannel strainer does this much better than a linen one. It is, indeed, indispensable. As to the quantity of eggs necessary, one pint to a pailful of syrup is amply sufiicient, and half as much will do very well. I now put my syrup into another kettle, which has been made perfectly clean and bright, when it is placed over a quick but solid fire, and soon rises, but is kept from overflowing by being ladled with a long dipper. ^NTWhen it is sufficiently reduced (I ascertain this by dropping it from the point of a knife, when hot, into one inch of cold water — if done, it will not immediately mix with the water, but will lie at the bottom in a round, flat drop), it is taken from the fire,and the foaming allowed to subside. A thick white scum, which is usable, is removed, and the sugar turned into a cask, placed