THE NINETEENTH ANNUAL. MEETING. 81 



distributed rainfall, but there is a rapidly growing belief that the condi- 

 tions governing this distribution are changing as our forests disappear, and 

 that forests are becoming more destructive and droughts more severe. If, 

 then, you need forests, Prof. Davenport says, 'It is evident, from the stand- 

 point both of public economy and private enterprise, that the trees that 

 should receive our fostering care, are those that will sometimes yield a 

 reven^^e to their owner. Trees whose timber is valuable, or that yield 

 valuable products, exert, fully as well as do worthless ones, the beneficial 

 effects upon soil and climate. For forestry purposes proper, those trees- 

 are most valuable which yield a revenue without loss of the tree itself.' 

 The maple meets this requirement. Timber trees yield a revenue only at 

 death, but the maple declares, as an annual dividend, one of the most whole- 

 some, nutritious, and delicious articles of food, which needs only to be 

 known in nil its ])urity to command the market. 



BEST UTENSILS MUST BE USED. 



"To obtain the greatest dividend it is essential, in the manufacture of 

 maple syrup, as in everything else, to practice the best methods, and to put 

 upon the market nothing liut the best quality of syrup. No product of the 

 farm or garden can vary more in quality than maple syrup. It can be 

 found of all shades of color and of flavor, from the pure amber-colored 

 liquid produced by our best sugar-makers, to the almost black ' real maple 

 sugar' produced from the sap, leaves, insects, etc., gathered in open wooden 

 troughs and boiled doMai in open kettles, while the wind filled the attend- 

 ant's eyes with smoke and the sap with ashes. 



"Such a process requires but little skill and less explanation. Leave the 

 troughs or buckets hanging on trees or lying on the ground near by, during 

 the summer and wdnter. They will be wanted in the same place next 

 spring. Let your sap-gatherer, if you have one, remain in the woods till 

 wanted. Be sure and never wash your buckets, pans, or kettles from the 

 commencement to the close of sugaring. We will guarantee the result. 

 Sugar-making won't pay. But if we are determined to make the best 

 article possible, we have a more ditHcult task. We must remember that in 

 sugar-making, above all else, 'cleanliness is next to godliness,' and take as 

 our motto, 'neatness and dispatch.' To secure these reciuisites, a sugar- 

 house is necessary. Comfort, convenience, and ijrofit, all unite in urging 

 the construction of such a house in every sugar-bush. We can not swing 

 a kettle to a jjole in the open air, where it is exposed to all the storms of 

 early spring, and to all the dust which a chance gust of wind may choose 

 to deposit in it, and exj^ect to make the best or even a passalile quality of 

 syrup. For the same reason, the sugar-house should consist of more than 

 one room. The boiling-room should be as neat as any kitchen and should 

 be separated from the woodshed by a light partition, that no dust from 

 splitting wood may be admitted. The store-trough should be partly within 

 and partly without the house. This facilitates emptying the gathering- 

 tank, while it is convenient for running the sap into the pans or evaporator. 

 It should be moveable and so arranged that, in the early part of 

 the season, wdien the weather is cold, the larger part can be 

 in the house to prevent the sap from f]-eezing, while in warmer 

 weather the larger portion may be outside to keep the sap cool and 

 sweet. It should be tin-lined, or if not, it should be painted both inside 

 and out and frequently scalded and scrubbed. The cover should fit as 



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