HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1979-04-04, Page 3THE PIONEER WAY
ANNUAL MEETING
AND NOMINATION
of the
Huron-Bruce Federal
Progressive Conservative
Association
at the
Saltford Valley Hall, Goderich
TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 1979
cit 8t00 PAC
GUEST SPEAKER: SINCLAIR STEVENS
member 61 Perliernent for York-Sinitoe Looser.
votive
Proposed Cdrididotkii to Ohio 4C hours written
hence to President prior to 060066060o
MRS. MARGARET BENNETT-, proiteleitt „
Nitta BETTY GRAHAM, Secrivitiry4teciiiieee
WANTED
BONNIE AND CLYDE
for armed robbery of
. Levi's, . HIS (Chic) . Road ,Runner . 'Wrangler
.Rainbow Carhartt (Foxy)
. Lee Painter Pants . Pleaters . Flare Jeans
pkt ‘A
rot ,t t
0
17.88
L
of
•2 cash back
f every $10 spent on regular priced merchandise
ate Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday
Et Saturday April 4-7
BONNIE AND CLYDE .
171 Main. $t., LiStOWei
Fashions Of today, prices of yesterday
PS visits sugar bush
THE BRUSSELS POST, APRIL 4, 1979
BY DEBBIE RANNEY
It's almost over - that time Of year when
those with maple trees are kept busy in the
bush tapping the maple syrup out of them is
almost finished.
Recent!), the Maitland Valley Conser-
vation
.
Authority (MVCA) has been conduct-
To the editor:
(Editor's Note: The following letter is one
of many being written to protest cuts at
Wingham and District Hospital).
Hon Dennis Timbrell
Ontario Minister of Health
Dear Honorable Sir:
As a member of the Wingham area I am
most deeply concerned with the impending
closing of beds in our Hospital . It is most
tragic that a hOspital serving such a large
area must be cut down. Over the years our
family has been served with excellent care
from our hospital and it gravely concerns
me that in the not too distant future we
shall have no hospital at all.
From statistics our hospital is operating
financially greatly below other hospitals
and therefore there should not be any great
financial burden to have it carry on without
this bed loss, which will drive patients to
larger urban centres for medical care. We
are most anxious in regard to the eventual
ing tours for area schools,4-H members and
cubs and scouts as well as other groups at
the Maple Keys Sugar Bush near Moles-
worth. Since about the middle of March the
Authority has been kept busy with the tours.
This is the second year the Authority has
been in operation at Maple Keys which is
loss of our clinics, nursing school,
diagnostic lab, and most of all the doctors
who most certainly will not care to locate in.
a place where hospital facilties are of little
use. Bed reduction now, and in the future
will eventually reduce us to the status of a
glorified first aid station, many miles from
the care to which each and every citizen is
entitled, in winter this can cause critical
conditions. In addition the care required in
a more expensively operating hospital will
add additional financial burden to the
taxpayer.
Staff who depend on the hospital for
their livelihood will be gradually eased out
to join the ranks of the umemployed. It is
most important that you give second
thought to this drastic move and act upon
it.
I thank you.
Yours truly
Mrs. Anne Marie Kieffer
R.R ,1 Bluevale
100 acres in size and contains 22 acres of
sugar bush along with hardwood and
coniferous trees and swamp.
About 676 students have visited the bush
so far with 25 more expected in April. About
1000 people altogether had passed through
the bush by last Thursday. Last year the
Authority had about 180 students in three
days and approximately 170 Scouts and 4-H
s members tour the bush.
On Thursday of last week students from
the Brussels Public School paid the bush a
visit
GUIDES
A tour of the bush starts off with guides
Charlene Gordon, the Canada Works Co-
ordinator and/or Rob Keip, community
relations officer leading the way. The first
stop is at some trees where the maple syrup
is being tapped.
Students learn that only large, healthy
sugar maples are cultivated and that dead,
diseased, damaged and unwanted trees are
removed in order to reduce the competition
for moisture, sunlight and soil nutrients.
This process of thinning also provides fuel
for the evaporator.
The next stop is at the demonstration post
where students can try their luck at tapping
with a brace and bit. Today most tapping is
done with an electric drill, using a portable
power source. A 5/8" diameter hole is
drilled on a slight upward angle 3" into the
tree.
The sap can be collected either through
the use of pails hung on the spites or else fed
into a system of plastic pipelines with
pipelines the more sanitary and efficient
method. Lids must be used on the pails so as
to not pollute the sap.
Pipelines are either gravity-operated with
the sap simply flowing downhill to collecting
tanks located in hollows or attached to a
vacuum pump where the sap is sucked
through the tubes and into tanks. The
vacuum pump encourages a sap flow even on
cold days.
MARKED
There is a place in the bush where the
Authority-has marked the various kinds of
trees and the guides also talk .about the
animals and birds that inhabit the trees.
As well as showing the new and modern
methods, the Authority also has places set
up where those on their tours can see how
the Indians and pioneers made maple syrup.
The Indians used hollow logs to hold the sap
and then dropped hot stones in to evaporate
the water. Often the smoke and ashes from
the fire mixed with the syrup.
The pioneers used a little more advanced
method of huge iron kettles or flat pans for
boiling. Flat pans provided more even
heating, but in the early days, kettles were
more common. Often a multiple kettle
system was used with the thickening sap
being transferred progressively from pot to
pot until it became syrup in the last kettle.
This prevented fresh sap from being mixed
with boiling sap.
Those on the tour are then shown the
modern method of boiling with an evapor-
ator unit which has flue and syrup pans and
a hood to funnel the steam outside. Heat is
provided by wood burning in the bottom
section. The unit is sloped to encourage flow
from the flue (sap) pan to the syrup pan. Sap
enters the flue pan through an overhead pipe
connected to a storage tank. The flow is
controlled by a float box on the evaporating
unit. In the pans, the sap movement is
directed by baffles (a device such as a wall or
screen) which regulates the flow towards the
take - off valve in the syrup pan.
When the sap is nearly syrup, it is drawn
off and finished in a gas-heated pan. The gas
provides a more controlled heat than does
the wood fire, and ensures a better end
product. When the sap measures 65 per cent
sugar, it is maple syrup and ready to be -
strained and stored.
At the end of the tour, students are given
a taste of the finished product and teachers
are given a litre jug of syrup to take back to
the classroom so they can do some cooking
experiments.
The Maple Keys sugar bush has approx-
imately 800 taps of which 260 are pails while
the remaining taps are on gravity and
vacuum pipelines. The sap storage tanks
have a 1500 gallon capacity and the
evaporation unit boils 600 gallons of sap in
eight hours to, produce 13 gallons of maple
syrup. There was about 200 gallons of good
quality syrup produced in 1978.
aple
Keys
Sap's
running!
Tragic to cut Wingham hospital