In the spring of 1940, Marion Post Wolcott came to Woodstock under the auspices of the Farm Security Administration. Her goal was to document the impact of the Great Depression on rural communities.
One of the farms that she visited was Maple Valley Farm on the North Bridgewater Road.
Since it was springtime when she came, Marion documented maple sugaring. In this photo, the farm's owner, Frank Shurtleff, uses a hand drill to make a hole in the maple tree.
After the hole is drilled, Frank shows how a metal spile is inserted that will allow maple sap to be extracted from the tree.
After hanging a bucket on the spile's hook, Frank slides a cover on the bucket to help keep rain and bits of debris out of the sap.
With the trees tapped, the gathering crew is ready to start collecting some sap.
To collect the sap, a gathering tank is placed on a sledge that is pulled by a team of horses. The gathering crew collects the sap from the trees and empties it into the tank.
The snow was very deep in the spring of 1940 when these photos were taken. You can see that the pant legs of Irving Shurtleff (the young boy) were wet from trodding through the deep snow.
Collecting sap is hard work, so the gathering team takes turns between driving the horses and collecting sap.
Julia Fletcher, pictured here, was a neighbor who lived next door to Frank Shurtleff in the house now known as “Apple Acres.” Notice her high waders!
Unfortunately, the snow was too deep for even high waders that spring!
Time for Julia to take over driving and let the men try to climb through the snow.
Time for a strategy session! The man on the right is probably saying, "Julia, where do you think we should go next to gather sap?"
With the gathering tank full, it's time to head back to the sugar house.
At the sugar house, the sap from the gathering tank will be emptied into evaporators inside the sugar house, where it will be boiled.
As the sap boils, it is condensed into maple syrup or maple sugar. Because of this evaporation process, the sugar house is shrouded in steam.
Sugaring was hard work, but it provided many Vermont families with an early spring crop that they could either sell or use themselves as a sweetener.
