Pioneer history of Ingham County, compiled and arranged by Mrs. Franc L. Adams, secretary of the Ingham County pioneer and historical society.

VEVAY TOWNSLSII' AND ITS HISTORY

759

shipped to private parties all over the country, most of whom
have standing orders for their year's supply. As proof of the
quality of his products Mr. Chapin shows medals won by his
exhibit at the St. Louis Exposition and a diploma received at the
Pan-American. The sugar orchard comprises 80 acres of a 140
acre wood lot, and besides the service they have given the Chapin
family for seventy years there is proof that they yielded their
sweetness for the benefit of the Indians long before the advent of
the white men. The remains of bark troughs and wooden spiles,
with the added evidence of the scars to be found on the mammoth
great trees, go to show that the red man had knowledge of this
valuable asset and made use of it.
It is said that the Indians made pilgrimages to this part of the
county every spring, where they camped through the maple sugar
season and "milked" the numerous sugar bushes in this vicinity.
The crude methods they employed in manufacturing the sugar,
which was said to be black and full of leaves and twigs, were of
course the best they knew, and it makes one wonder what their
sensations would have been could they have taken a peep into
Mr. Chapin's modern and model sap house and watched the
work done there. Let us see how this plant was conducted in
1913. The work began early in the winter when the men commnenced to fill the huge shed at the sugar camp with wood ready
to feed the furnaces. Then the first warm day that promised
spring began the work of tapping the trees. Iron spouts were
driven into holes previously bored in the trees about three feet
from the ground. On these were hung tin sap pails, with wooden
covers so adjusted as to exclude everything but the pure, limpid
sap. The larger trees carry two or three pails. Two teams are
kept busy gathering sap, each drawing a steel tank holding several barrels of the fluid, and three men work with each outfit.
The tanks are mounted on runners, as they are more practical for
use in snow and mud than wheels. Deep snow often makes the
work of gathering sap very difficult.
The sugar house contains two 20-foot evaporators, with 25-foot
smokestacks, and to attend to the fires and watch the boiling sap
keeps one man busy.
The teams bring the sap to an elevation beside the sugar camp,
where it is emptied through a hose into big 50-foot barrel tanks.