A Book of the Seasons, Signs of the Spring: Red Maple Sap Flows

No mortal is alert enough 

to be present at the first dawn of the spring. 

Henry Thoreau, March 17, 1857

Suddenly black dots in the sky – expanded buds – their sap is flowing. March 5, 1852

It is worth the while 

to know that there is all this 

sugar in our woods

March 21, 1856

February 21.  Am surprised to see this afternoon a boy collecting red maple sap from some trees behind George Hubbard's. It runs freely. The earliest sap I made to flow last year was March 14th . . .The river for some days has been open and its sap visibly flowing, like the maple.  February 21, 1857 

February 23.   I have seen signs of the spring . . . I have seen the clear sap trickling from the red maple.  February 23, 1857

March 2.  The red maple sap flows freely, and probably has for several days. March 2, 1860 

March 3.  The red maple sap, which I first noticed the 21st of February, is now frozen up in the auger-holes. March 3, 1857

March 4.  I see where a maple has been wounded the sap is flowing out. Now, then, is the time to make sugar.  March 4, 1852

March 5.  As I sit under the red maples at white bridge, I suddenly see the myriad black dots of their expanded buds against the sky. Their sap is flowing.   March 5, 1852

March 7.   To-day, as also three or four days ago, I saw a clear drop of maple sap on a broken red maple twig, which tasted very sweet.   March 7, 1855 

March 14.  Just above Pinxter Swamp, one red maple limb was moistened by sap trickling along the bark. Tapping this, I was surprised to find it flow freely.   March 14, 1856

March 15. Put a spout in the red maple of yesterday, and hang a pail beneath to catch the sap. March 15, 1856 

March 16. Going home, slip on the ice, throwing the pail over my head to save myself, and spill all but a pint. So it is lost on the ice of the river. When the river breaks up, it will go down the Concord into the Merrimack, and down the Merrimack into the sea. March 16, 1856

March 20. Cutting a maple for a bridge over Lily Brook, I was rejoiced to see the sap falling in large, clear drops from the wound. March 20,1853

March 20. The sap of red maples in low and warm positions now generally flows, but not in high and exposed ones . . . Set a pail before coming here to catch red maple sap, at Trillium Wood. I am now looking after elder and sumach for spouts.  Got my smooth sumach on the south side of Nawshawtuct. I know of no shrubs hereabout except elders and the sumachs which have a suitable pith and wood for such a purpose. March 20, 1856

March 21. I see red maple sap oozing out and wetting the young trees where there is no obvious wound. March 21, 1855

March 21.  It is worth the while to know that there is all this sugar in our woods . . . I left home at ten and got back before twelve with two and three quarters pints of sap, in addition to the one and three quarters I found collected . . . One maple, standing immediately north of a thick white pine, scarcely flowed at all, while a smaller, farther in the wood, ran pretty well. The south side of a tree bleeds first in spring. March 21, 1856

March 22. At the red maple which I first tapped, I see the sap still running and wetting the whole side of the tree. It has also oozed out from the twigs, especially those that are a little drooping, and run down a foot or two bathing them sometimes all around, both twigs and buds sometimes, or collected in drops on the under sides of the twigs and all evaporated to molasses, which is, for the most part, as black as blacking or ink, having probably caught the dust, etc., even over all this snow. Yet it is as sweet and thick as molasses, and the twigs and buds look as if blacked and polished. Black drops of this thick, sweet syrup spot the under sides of the twigs. No doubt the bees and other insects frequent the maples now. I thought I heard the hum of a bee, but perhaps it was a railroad whistle on the Lowell Railroad. It is as thick as molasses. See a fuzzy gnat on it. It is especially apt to collect about the bases of the twigs, where the stream is delayed. Where the sap is flowing, the red maple being cut, the inner bark turns crimson. I see many snow-fleas on the moist maple chips. 
March 22, 1856

March 22.  The phenomena of an average March . . . Vegetation fairly begins, – conferva and mosses, grass and carex, etc., — and gradually many early herbaceous plants start, and noticed radical leaves; Stellaria media and shepherd's-purse bloom; maple and buttonwood sap (6th) flow; spiræas start, cladonias flush, and bæomyces handsome; willow catkins become silvery, aspens downy; osiers, etc., look bright, white maple and elm buds expand and open, oak woods thin- leaved; alder and hazel catkins become relaxed and elongated. March 22, 1860

March  24.   It is too cold to think of those signs of spring which I find recorded under this date last year. The earliest signs of spring in vegetation noticed thus far are the maple sap, the willow catkins, grass on south banks, and perhaps cowslip in sheltered places. Alder catkins loosened, and also white maple buds loosened.   March 24, 1855

*****

So I came in and

shut the door and passed my first

spring night in the woods.

Walden, Spring

See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau:

• I Have Seen Signs of the Spring
• cowslip in sheltered places
• white maple buds loosened

and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring:

• A Change in the Air
• A Sunny Nook in Spring
• Alder and Willow Catkins Expanding
• Braided Ripples of Melting Snow Shine in the Ruts
• Bright Blue Water
• Buzzing Flies
• Ducks Afar, Sailing on the Meadow
• Frogs, and Turtles Stirring
• Greening Grasses and Sedges
• I begin to think that my wood will last
• Insects and Worms Come Forth and are Active
• Listening for the Bluebird
• March is famous for its Winds
• Mosses Bright Green
• My Greatcoat on my Arm
• Perla-like Insects Appear
• Red Maple Sap Flows
• Ripples made by Fishes
• Skunks Active
• The Anxious Peep of the Early Robin
• The crowing of cocks, the cawing of crows
• The Days have grown Sensibly Longer
• The Eaves Begin to Run
• The Gobbling of Turkeys
• The Grackle Arrives
• The Hawks of March
• The New Warmth of the Sun
• The Note of the Dark-eyed Junco Going Northward
• The Red-Wing Arrives
• The Skunk Cabbage Blooms
• The Softened Air of these Warm February Days
• The Song Sparrow Sings
• The Spring Note of the Chickadee
• The Spring Note of the Nuthatch
• The Striped Squirrel Comes Out
• The Water Bug (Gyrinus)
• Walking without Gloves
• Woodpeckers Tapping

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring:  Red Maple Sap Flows

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau

 "A book, each page written in its own season, 

out-of-doors, in its own locality."

 ~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx ©  2009-2023

https://tinyurl.com/hdt-sap