Excerpt from The Maple Sugar Industry

At first the sap was generally carried to the fire or sugarhouse in buckets, by hand or with a Shoulder yoke; occasionally a barrel and sled, drawn by an ox team or horses, were added to the gathering outfit. But as the scale of operations increased the gathering tank was introduced, and is now used in all but the smallest groves. Where the work is on a large scale, pipes are Often run through the bush, as the grove is sometimes called, connecting with the sugarhouse or with large storage tanks on the roadside, while in one large Adirondack sugar grove a narrow-guage railway is used for collecting sap.

The first great change in the actual process of sugar making came about the middle of the nineteenth century with the adoption of an iron pan in place of the old kettle. The earliest form of evaporator was a Shallow pan 30 inches wide, 6 inches deep, and from 6 to 10 feet in length. This was supported by a thin-walled fire box of stone or brick. Nearly the entire under surface of the pan was exposed to the heat, which resulted in much more rapid evaporation, the use of less fuel, and the manufacture Of a better quality Of Sirup and sugar. With the introduction of these evaporator pans, buildings for shelter were erected, most of them very rudely-constructed open shanties. A few lengths Of rusty stovepipe placed at the rear end Of the arch, as the fire box is called, carried the smoke outside. This form of pan was filled to a certain depth with sap, which, when reduced to a thin Sirup, was poured out and the evaporator refilled. In 1865 pans with partitions to cause an alternating flow were introduced. This improve ment allowed the sap to enter at one end of the evaporator and to flow from side to side through succeeding compartments, reaching the other end in the form of Sirup, where it was drawn off into a receiving tank.

Thus the modern evaporator, an apparatus remarkable for the inge unity displayed in its construction, and for its adaptability to the needs of the industry, has been evolved from the old, plain Sheet-iron pan. Those in use to-day by the best sugar makers are Of all sizes, but average about 6 inches deep, 40 inches wide, and from 10 to 18 feet long. They are often made with corrugated bottoms to increase the heating surface. Partitions from Side to side, and open at alternate ends, are placed in them at intervals of from 8 to 10 inches. The sap, Whose flow from the storage tank is carefully regulated, enters the evaporator at one end and flows slowly across the pan from side to side, around the partitions, until it reaches the far end. By that time it is reduced to the desired density.

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