http://www.motherearthnews.com...

This was my job back home in northern Michigan. The sap spiles were inserted into drilled holes in the trees. We used 2 gallon canning tins from a local commercial canning factory. The handles were made of baling wire inserted into two drilled holes along the upper edge of the tin and looped across to make a bail. The bail was hung over the sap spiles. With the spring thaws, the sap would start to fill the buckets.; I sometimes had to empty them twice a day--meaning one tree would produce almost 4 gallons of syrup on a good day. The syrup was dumped into a nearby galvanized horse tank supported over a fire which was kept burning. By evaporation the syrup formed in the horse tank. We took the syrup back to the canning factory and had it processed into sealed tins. In the bottom of the tank, a residual from the syrup was maple sugar. Need I describe it? After all that work, this was the precious stuff left!

Can you tap other trees besides maple? Yes you can. https://answers.yahoo.com/ques...