March 23, 1933 Tapping the Sugar Bush

Open any of Dewitt’s diaries to March and you will find notes on “Tapping the Sugar Bush.” This term applies to the tapping of the sugar maples to get the sap needed to make maple syrup.

A sample of entries for 1933: March 17, Tapped the sugar bush today. Finished up at 4 o’clock. 180 pails. Few song birds around. Sap running good.

March 18, We made six gallons of syrup today. Thousands of geese in the air today. Colder and cloudy today. Father ran the evaporator.

March 20, Rain most all day. Everything covered with ice. Ice melting this afternoon. I emptied out sap pails about 4 o’clock and it began to run strong.

March 21, It rained nearly all day. Colder tonight. Father and I made 7 gallons of syrup today. Creeks are high. Winter ended today and is the mildest winter on record.

March 23, Cloudy and cool, not good sap weather. Selling some potatoes for 40 cents per bushel. I have a fine pile of them left.

In 1933 they were selling syrup for $1.75 per gallon.

How much sap does it take to make a gallon of syrup? One source notes that each tap will have an average of eight gallons of sap, which when boiled down will be about one quart of syrup.

A few dates from 1928: March 12, Very warm all day. Washed sap pails this afternoon and began tapping. Dr. Hill has gone to Florida for a month on March 5. He has been rushed all winter. The weather is mild and acting like spring. Getting ready to buzz wood. Snow melting and the water running very high today.

March 13, I saw several robins, a sure sign of spring this morning. Partly cloudy and south wind this morning. The trees are not running very strong. We tapped some more trees today.

March 23, We made 7 gallons of syrup today. The snow is running away fast. The thermometer was 72 today. It sure was warm.

April 3, Boiled sap today. It runs fine. I made 7 gal of syrup today. The pails were all full today and I did not catch up with it. Frost is all out of the ground.

April 5, Emptied out the last of our sap and called it a season. The thermometer was 76 today. Some are plowing. Sprayed father’s peach trees today. We gathered up the pails today.

Dewitt’s Diary, Saturday, March 23, 1929

Cloudy and warm. I pulled the sap pails down today. A short season.