[Illustration: GATHERING MAPLE SAP WITH OXEN AFTER A SNOW STORM.] THE EARLY HISTORY OF MAPLE SUGAR. Vermont has an enviable world wide reputation for the production of two things: men and maple sugar. The noble record of the former as given to us in history and also records of the present day are known to all. But that the latter also has a history of much interest is little known. Along with the maize and tobacco, maple sugar had its origin among the Indians. For time unknown before the white man came to this continent the aborigines drew the sap of the maple tree and distilled therefrom a sweet syrup. The various tribes of Canada, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan all knew of this art. Where ever the white people came in contact with the Indians in a region where the maple tree grew they found them making this delicious sweet, and it was from them the white man learned the process. The probable way in which the Indians discovered this art is contained in one of their Legends, as given by Rowland E. Robinson in the _Atlantic Monthly_: “While Woksis, the mighty hunter was out one day in search of game, his diligent squaw Moqua busied herself embroidering him some moccasins. For the evening meal of her lord she boiled some moose meat in the sweet water from a maple tree just by the wigwam. Becoming interested in her work, she forgot the moose meat, and the sweet water boiled away to a thick brown syrup.” “When Woksis returned he found such a dainty morsel ready for his supper, as he had never before tasted. The great chief eagerly devoured the viand, licked the kettle clean and then went out and told his tribe that Kose-Kus-beh, a heaven sent instructor, had taught Moqua how to make a delicious food by boiling the juice of the maple. And the discovery soon became known among all the Indians.” To get the sap the Indians with their tomahawks cut a long slanting gash in the tree, below the lower end of this gash a notch was cut to hold a chip along which the sap would flow. The sap was caught in birch bark dishes and boiled in earthen kettles. The small quantity of dark syrup thus produced was the Indians only supply of sugar. Imagine ourselves limited in this necessity of life to a little taste each spring, and we can think what a delicacy their maple sugar must have been to the Indian. We fondly anticipate the coming of this season of the year, either for pleasure or profit. How long these anticipations have existed in the hearts of men we know not, but we do know that long before the foot of white man touched the virgin soil of New England, long before the woodman’s axe echoed among our hills and valleys, the dusky race, who freely roamed the primeval forest gathered the maple sap in the primative way. It is not improbable that the young braves and dusky maidens of the tribe, had sugar parties, ate sugar upon snow