Kaeleb and I are looking at a sap pail. This is the old way of collecting maple sap to cook into syrup. They would put a spout/tap into the tree so that sap would drip into the bucket. Then they would go around and empty the buckets.
Now they use a hose line like in these pictures. You can see the hoses running from tree to tree. The sap runs through the hoses and collects at a pumping station where it is then collected and made into syrup. A lot less work and probably a better yield!