"MONEY IN IGE FISHING A PICTURESQUE OCCUPATION WIDELY FCLLOWED., Beason Which Ha: Just Closed Has Been a Good Old-Fashioned One For Fishermen -- Hut and Open Fishing Both Popular --- Little Houses Mystify Visitors to Canada For the First Time. The fish huts down on the ice at Burlington Bay, Hamilton, all along the north shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario, near the various small towns, and most conspicuous of all on Kempenfeldt Bay, facing Barrie and Allandale, are 2lways a mystery to visitors in Canada, although to the native Canadian they are for the most part commonplace. Astonishingly few know what tliey are when they 866 them first. Then the obliging well-informed part in the adjoin- ing seat of the train supplies the ellipsis. The next time they taste that fine mess o° fresh fish on the homie table, or at their botel, they appreciate its delicacy of not-cold- storage flavor, more highly still. It is doubtful whether mid-winter fishing will ever become as popular as dangling the oiled-silk over the gunwale of a soft-cushioned skiff, at quiet, calculated anchor, among Aug- ust's wavering green sedges. But it Bas its devotees. They are strictly in ft for the money. The winter just past has been a good, old-fashioned, £00d season for them, starting about thé middle of Docember last, when the thermometer "went down with a bump." At that "bumip' every icé-hole fisherman on our Ontario bays and lakes waxed joyful and hied him away to his favorite part of the shore with many strange fixings roped to Lis haca-sleigh. First he pieked up his bearing, figured out the ouyrents, and shifted his position from 'that of the previous winter if experience dictated so. Next, he erétted his house upon the ice -- a very simple affair--light enough to carry holus-bolus on his sled. Some times he bas to bufld it. He 1s his own architect, and there are no bullding bylaws, so that a few sec- tions of battered corrugated fron, half a dozen boards or so, with a torn old sail cloth, suffice when thrown crudely together--but strong- ly, for the structure has to weather many's the flerco winter's gale and snowstorm. The man or boy who follows the fce-fishing must be no weakling. Sometimes you get one so warm- blooded and husky that, by choice, he' dispenses with a cosy shack alte- gether -- both it and the small sheet- iron stove that often adds to its com- fort--and is satisfied instead with a wind-break of canvas nailed to two stout supports, that he props into the ice between his battery of ice-holes anc the chilly breeses. { Of course the first job confronting the winter angler after providing protection against the elements fs to cut hig holes. It is as much as square, cut clear through the ice no matter how thick, with an lce-chisel; although thin ica can be managed handily with an ordinary axe, along with considerable patience--espécial- ly #f the wind is blowing in-shore, and every stroke nea the close of the peration forces s spurt of frigid wat. that generall: finds lodgment in region of onc's face and neck. SUGAR DAYS, Quebec Leads the Dominion Ky Production, When the chap who spent the past few days visiting his old home up country brought his newspaper par- cel dowa to the office, did you get your chunk of forest coufectiomery? "S8ap's runnin', sap's runnin' '"--has been the welcome call throughout the province. Ontario produces a trifle over 5,000,000 pounds against nearly 14,500,000 pounds to the credit of Quebec. The lower prov- inces lag behind with another half- million pounds, and exhausts the tale of this industry for the Domiun- ion. There are about 55,000 Cana- dian maple 'sugar producers, and their picturesque if strenuous labors represent an annual valuation of al most two million dollars, says a writer in a recent issue of the Tor ronto Star Weekly, The best maple "milker" is the wide-rooted, tall, leafy-crowned tree --bulged out like an umbrella-- such as the naturally growing forest maple. That accounts for Quebec's record, her bush lots have not al been cut into for cordwood. The season generally begins around the middle of March, scarcely ever lasts inz halfway through April. Fuel for boiling the sap is a big item, the average requirements being 10 cords of mixed hard and soft wood for 1,000 trees. Once the great pine forests of all Old Ontdrio was plentifully diversi fied with maple bush. Generations of original settlers and farmers have thinned both out woefully. Happy the Ontario farmer who to-day can boast his bush lot of even 300 or 400 sugar maples. It's the same as money. Places in Ontario around which there still remain important sugar-making activities are Troy, Gowanstown, Cargill, Moira, Lafon- taine, Waterloo, Rédnersville, Wrox- eter, Cookston, Bloomfield, Martin- town, ete, but there's scarcely any county where some tapping has not been going on this spring. In the small bushes they are till employ- ing "old grand-dad's way" of years back. Warm days and cold nights are best for a good run. Into the half-inch auger-bole, about three feet from the ground, goes the "spile'" on which the pail is hung to catch the sweety flow, This metal spile was a hollowed out sumach branch in old times, and deprives the modern farmer of much whit. fling and pith-poking for winter evenings. The greatest improve- ments are noted at the bush "kite chen." The "evaporator" replaces the old-fashioned boiling pot that turned fhe sap to sugar, and the latest improved evaporators are quite elaborate and thorough in their get-up. Sometimes two of these flat, broad, sheet-iron affairs are used, the sap entering the first or "warmer," and passing after fil- tration to the second or "evapora- tor," steadily flowing in a shallow, down-grade stream past alternating copper partitions, from side to side; when the sap reaches the far end the heat of the fire below will have turn- ed it into a thin syrup. This is re- moved and filtered and set in shapes to "grain" or solidify inte sugar; while ithe drippings therefrom are collected below and bottled or can- ned and labelled "maple syrup- warranted pure!" The man with a small bush does not need to make a "business" of {t--generally the small fry attend to the whole thing from tapping to sugaring down, with his female folks} putting on the final touches {hat help at the nearest market. The fire-tender needs patience. Some- times he works under a rude roof of boards, oftener not, he's generally content with a sheltered, "warm," hollow in the bush. who never lost his temper. Col. Elliot joinei the staff, he quick- ly guined samo officers would lose his temper first, and the affair developed ; i Ini il Right in this town--and all over the --are men and women who i driving 'different 'mal for years, who now drive and by their Maxwells. they used to buy a dif- trying to find a car suit them exactly. 1915 Maxwell "Wonder its 17 new features and rice of $925, was an- "motor wise" men began investigating it. They didn't take our word or any- A High-Teasion Magoeto all high priced cars have high tension tension eto gives positive sutomo- Ee To og UC Ey They dR ig tha ound that the Best ice: f highepriced car feature, : They tested the Mazwell and' on the level on roads. They made it prove its ability to run' sorts of roads. at low 'cost er all up-to-date y 2h ed--Men