1022 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



SUGAR MAPMvS AS STREET TREES 



This variety of maple is popular as a shade tree. It thrives best in villages or along country 

 roads, as in large towns it is affected by smoke, dust and gas. It is subject to attack by 

 the forest tent caterpillar and the maple borer occasionally makes great holes in its trunk. 



gorgeous. The glowing shades 

 of vellow, orange, scarlet and 

 green turn the forest landscape 

 into a wondrous sea of color. 



The "sugar tree" is an ap- 

 propriate name, for in a cool 

 climate this tree stores great 

 (|uantities of sugar in its sap. 

 The collier the season the larger 

 the amount of sugar it yields, 

 in March, when the sap is 

 ascending, the trees are tapped 

 and the sap is collected and 

 evaporated into maple syrup and 

 sugar. Unless excessive, tapping 

 does not injure the tree and can 

 1)e continued indefinitely. Sugar 

 "liushes" or orchards arc profit- 

 alile when well cared for. Three 

 iir four gallons of sap are usu- 

 ally required to make one pound 

 I if sugar. Two or three pounds 

 of sugar per tree is an aver- 

 age yield. Large, solitary trees 

 often vield much more than this. 



Commercial Uses of Sugar Maple 



Bv Hu AlAxwiu.r. 



C( ).M1'AR.VT1VELV little maple lumber is used 

 in rough form. It is essentially a factory wood, 

 anil as such it has a place in nearly every in- 

 dustry of this countr\- which employs wood as raw mate- 

 rial. The reported sawmill production of mai>le lumber 

 for the United States in 19]-^ was 1 ,0-.in,8t; 1.000 feet, and 

 the factory use for one year is reported at '.)■.'■,', :i:iT, 274 

 feet, which is 90 ])er cent of the cut of the mills. 



Maple appears in fifty of the fifty li\e iiuluslries into 

 which the uses of wood in the United States are gen- 

 erally divided. Xo other winid has a record so nearly 

 approaching universal use. < )ak, red gum. basswoorl 

 and Ijirch apjiroach maple, but fall a little short. It 

 appears in a few industries where they are not found. As 

 might be expected, Michigan, which produces more majjlc 

 lumber than any other state, is likewise the largest user 

 of this wood in its factories. 



MANUEACTURINC, 



Maple is pre-eminently a manufacturer's wood. Little 

 rough lumber reaches the final user, but it passes through 

 machines or is shajied by triuls until it has been fitted for 

 the most exacting service re(|uireil of wood. Nearly 

 every industry that has a (ilace for any sort of wood, 

 draws supplies from maple, ll filK pnsitions where the 

 highest order of material i-- required, and it meets de- 



mand if low-class anil clieap stock suffices. It is an a>.so- 

 ciate of aristocrats and a cnnipanion of plebians. Forty- 

 nine wood-using industries re])ort it as raw material for 

 further manufacture in \arious parts of the United 

 States. The largest consumes more than 300,000,000 

 feet a year; the smallest less than So, 000. The ten indus- 

 tries which lead in the use of maple are : planing mill 

 products, furniture, boxes and crates, Ijoat and shoe 

 findings, agricultural implements, musical instruments, 

 handles, woodenware, vehicles, fixtures. These use a 

 total of about s:;;l.(l(l(),0(M» feet yearly, while the use of 

 maple by thirty-nine other industries aggregates 89,- 

 124, -jST feet a }ear, and forty states report it. This is 

 in addition tu what is consumed for cooperage, wood dis- 

 tillation and fuel, and in the aggregate these aiuounts are 

 very large. 



I'I,\XIXC. M1EI< I'kiiDL'CTS 



The l.-irgest demand for maple comes from the in- 

 dustry which turns i lU planing mill products. These 

 co\er a consiilcralile range of articles, among which arc 

 flooring, ceiling, wainscoting, stairwork, molding, doors, 

 and many other ai'ticles of interior house finish. The 

 largest single item is fiooring, so far as the use of maple 

 is cnncerned. Xn wnml surpasses it for that purpose, 



