Video Parts (2)
This clip is Part 1 of a 2-part film.
MAPLE SUGAR Part 1
Description
The original catalog description provided by the Ford Motor Company reads as follows: “Maple sugar and syrup are made by boiling the sweet sap from the maple tree. The sugar maple is most commonly used. The Indians taught us how to make maple sugar from this tree.” Grove of maple trees. “Most of the maple syrup and sugar comes from the following states.” Map of eastern United States showing Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire. “We are at the ‘sugar bush.’ The maple sap begins to flow on the first bright spring days.” Man with wooden bucket walking through trees. “This is the old fashioned method of tapping a maple tree.” Farmer boring hole in tree. “Inserting the Elderwood spile or spout.” Spout with wooden bucket hanging below. “Drop by drop the wooden pail fills slowly with the sweet sap.” Sap dripping into almost full pail. “This boy likes to test the sap.” Small child removing pail from tree, drinking from pail and from spout. “The old way of collecting the sap.” Worker carrying pails from yoke across shoulders, emptying sap into pails. “The buckets are carried on a shoulder yoke.” More of above. “A fire is built under the sugar kettle and the sap is boiled.” Huge kettles hanging over bonfires, workers. “It requires five gallons of sap to make one pound of sugar. The boiling goes on day and night.” Kettles over fires. “A piece of greasy pork keeps the sap from boiling over.” Pork hanging over boiling sap. “This is the modern method of tapping the maple tree. The pails have lids to keep out the dirt.” Workers placing pails on trees - lid up, sap dripping. “Collecting the sap.” Worker emptying sap into bucket. “Some days it is cold and the snow is deep enough for snowshoes.” Workers on snowshoes collecting sap. “Hauling sap to the sugar house.” Emptying sap into large vat on sled - horse-drawn sled driven through trees. “In this sugar camp the sap is piped from the trees to the sugar house.” Pipe system - workers emptying sap into pipes through bucket on pipe camp buildings. “In the modern sugar camp this evaporator changes 350 gallons of sap into syrup in one hour.” Worker, tanks of sap. “The sap trickles in at one end and the pure syrup comes out. The impurities are skimmed off.” Worker tending vats. “The syrup is strained.” Syrup running through straining bags into vat. “The syrup is bottled.” Bottling machinery in operation. “Maple syrup in tin cans is the most convenient way of shipping it to the market.” Tinning machinery in operation. “If the syrup is boiled, sugar results. This sugar is re-melted, strained and beaten to make it lighter in color.” Blocks of sugar in a pail, worker placing blocks into vats - close-up of sugar being beaten in vat. “The sugar is at last molded into small cakes.” Worker pouring sugar into molds. “End.” “Ford Educational Library.” [1922]
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