50 THIRTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



pretty long one, no movement in Vermont which I thought so calcu- 

 lated to be of more benefit to the State than this meeting in these 

 interests here at the same time, the sugar makers and the Dairymen's 

 Association, and this new interest, forestry. These interests are all 

 allied. So far as sugar making is concerned Vermont holds a unique 

 position, she has no rival the country over. Everyone wishing syrup, 

 his first inquiry is, is it Vermont syrup? I have no subject as you will 

 see, but I want just to have a conversation with you about this. You 

 all know what is sold as Vermont maple syrup over the country, a 

 large part of it never saw Vermont. I had my attention called to it at 

 Washington a few weeks ago accidentally. I was alone at breakfast, 

 my family had not come out, and had some hot cakes. As soon as I 

 tasted the syrup I said, "James, this is not maple syrup." "Oh, yes," says 

 he, "it is; you have given away what you had left last spring and I 

 bought a little at the grocery." I said, "I know better; I was brought 

 up on maple syrup; this is not maple syrup," I said; "bring me the 

 bottle." James did so and I saw a peculiar looking substance and the 

 card on the bottle showed it was put up by a concern in "Burlington, 

 Vt., and St. Paul, Minn. I wrote to your Mayor at once, and he answered 

 that there was no such concern in business here, but that some one 

 had left instructions at the post office to have mail that came for them 

 forwarded to St. Paul. I mention this as an illustration of the way 

 most of the business is done. They take some maple sugar and mold 

 it over, mix it with cane sugar or something else and sell it, and the 

 buyer, in the great majority of cases, supposes he is getting Vermont 

 maple sugar. I rode around to the grocery stores in Washington, to 

 six of the principal ones, and I asked for some maple syrup, bought a 

 bottle at each place; I think in only one of them was it really put up in 

 Vermont. There was at one place maple syrup put up by Welch 

 Brothers of this city; the other was all from St. Paul or some other 

 place out of the State. This is of especial interest to Vermont. We 

 have no competitor in the business if we can manage and hold it as we 

 ought to. It is really a great industry. We at the Washington end of 

 the line have a duty to perform. We passed a year ago a law to prevent 

 false branding. I hardly think that covers the frauds in maple sugar as 

 it ought to. We hope to pass a pure food law that will better the 

 situation very much, but it will not correct it entirely. The State here 

 should take some action looking towards the adoption of some kind of a 

 State label, with a license to use it, that will show to the buyer — and a 

 copy of the law might be put onto the label — that will show to the 

 buyer that the article is not only purchased, but is put up in the package 

 here in Vermont. I think that will bring the business home. As it is 

 now the bulk of the profit really goes to the middle men at the manu- 

 factory outside of the State. 



Now to the dairy interest, that is a great one! You have noticed 

 from the census that the total dairy products under the last census in 

 Vermont, the total product exceeded that of the other five New 

 England states combined. The total of the whole was some over eleven 



