160 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



no choice as to where it will flow, and will go out of any 

 available opening, and sap is mainly water. The sap 

 runs out through the tapped hole in the tree, just as the 

 water would run out of a barrel full of water if a hole 

 were made in the barrel. In other words, there is such a 

 strong pressure inside the tree that a release of that 

 pressure will cause the sap to run toward the hole both 

 above and below. 



Tapping a tree does not hurt it unless a great many 

 spiles are used in one tree. The loss of sap from one or 

 two holes is not enough to make any difference. There 

 is a chance that disease may enter the tree through the 

 top-hole, but this is not likely to be the case if the tree 

 is vigorous. Toward the end of the sugar season the sap 

 is not as good as at first. This is because the sap gath- 

 erers are not particular to keep their buckets thoroughly 

 clean. A sort of slime will form on the inside of the 

 buckets, and this will give the sap a bad flavor. It is 

 also true that during the latter part of the season, espe- 

 cially when the buds begin to swell, the sap is slightly 

 different from that at first, because food materials other 

 than sugar are being carried in it to supply the needs of 

 the growing tree. The sugar makers know this as 

 "buddy" sap. 



Children in parts of the country where the sugar 

 maples do not grow can well envy their more fortunate 

 friends in the Northern States. It is great fun to go out 

 with the men and boys and teams into the woods, tap the 

 trees and hang up the buckets. Then, when the buckets 

 are full, the sap is collected and taken on sleds to the 

 sugar house to be boiled down into syrup or sugar. Far- 

 ther south people have tried to get sugar from the silver 

 maple or soft maple, and it will yield a little. This fact 

 is borne out in the Latin, or scientific name of the tree, 

 the real sugar maple, sacchaniin. being so named in 

 Latin, while the Latin name of the soft maple, trans- 

 lated into English, means the maple of little sugar. 



TREES FOR REFORESTING 



TEN THOUSAND acres of waste private land in 

 New York State can be reforested this year if 

 advantage is taken of the Conservation Commis- 

 sion's offer to distribute, at cost of production, 10,000,000 

 forest tree seedlings and transplants now in the five State 

 nurseries. The prices range from $L50 per thousand 

 for two-year seedlings to $4.50 per thousand for four- 

 year transplants, according to an announcement just 

 made by the Commission. 



One thousand trees will reforest an acre at a total 

 maximum cost of trees and labor of not over $10, ac- 

 cording to the Commission. In forty-four years the 

 value of the stand will be $370 per acre, if of white pine, 

 and but little less than this if of spruce. This is 292 

 per cent more than the maximum investment of $10 

 would amount to at compound interest for the same 

 period, and 1,01(5 per cent more than it would come to 

 at simple interest. 



A PROTEST 



MR. C. C. ANTHONY, of Wayne, Pennsylvania, 

 in writing to the Philadelphia Ledger, says: 

 "Haverford College has a namesake in far-off 

 California. Not an infant college, but a giant redwood 

 tree, one of the most spectacular in Yosemite Park, ac- 

 cording to a guide-book to the park, which is among the 

 new books in the Library. It shows a photograph of the 

 tree beside a similar sequoia, yclept the 'Ohio,' with the 

 following comment : 'The "Haverford," named for the 

 college in Pennsylvania, illustrates the Indian practice 

 of using big trees as back-logs for fires.' 



"This refers, I think, to one of those numerous signs 

 tacked at random upon the big trees in the JMariposa 

 Grove — placed there with as little rhyme or reason as a 

 vandal's initials on a monument, to name the tree after 

 various institutions, people, cities and States — from 

 Peoria e\'en unto New Jersey. If Haverford College 

 has any sense of the fitness of things, it will request the 

 proper authority to have the sign removed forthwith. 



"If, in places of great interest, there is anything more 

 asinine than those impudent and offensive signs, the dis- 

 tressed tourist will have to go a long way to find it." 



REFORESTATION WORK 



THE Semet-Solvay Company, of Syracuse, which 

 owns and operates large mines in West Virginia, 

 under the direction of the Solvay Colleries Com- 

 pany, has recently become very much interested in re- 

 forestation on its holdings in West Virginia. It feels 

 that its lands, to be of real value in the future, even 

 though the coal and other minerals have been removed, 

 should be reforested. It is planning, therefore, to begin 

 reforestation either the coming spring or in the spring of 

 1917. The Solvay Company has asked the New York 

 State College of Forestry at Syracuse to examine and 

 report upon reforestation upon their holdings at Kings- 

 ton and Marytown, in central West Virginia. Professor 

 J. Fred Baker, of the college, is now in West Virginia 

 examining these holdings, and is accompanied by a party 

 of eight senior students, who will take part in the field 

 examination of the properties. After the field studies 

 are comjjleted, the party of boys will visit several large 

 lumbering operations in West Virginia. Mr. H. J. 

 Kaestner, State Forester of West Virginia, met the party 

 at Kingston to cooperate in any fire protection arrange- 

 ments which may be suggested. 



JANUARY, 1915, COPIES NEEDED 



THE American Forestry Association will be glad to 

 buy copies of Amicric.'^n Forestry for January, 

 191."). and members having copies of that month 

 and not needing them will confer a favor on the Associa- 

 tion bv mailing them to the oflice at Washington, D. C. 



