Early in spring, while the weather is yet cold, and before the trees have begun to show many signs of life, it is the time for tapping the maples.
The sun, which has already begun to make his power felt by melting the snow, and leaving great green patches here and there on the cleared lands, has kissed the rugged trunks of the trees, and has set the sweet sap mounting through every vein and tissue.
Now is the time to set the troughs in order, and to bore the holes for the little spouts through which the juice must run. These must be made a foot from the ground, on the sunny side of the tree; and very soon the drip, drip, of the oozing sap will be heard, as it trickles over the spout into the rough bowls placed to catch it at the foot of every maple.

License information: nan
MPAA: G
Go to source: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14170/14170-h/14170-h.htm#BOILING_MAPLE_SUGAR