270 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



to that of any other tree. Two million five hundred thousand 

 pairs of lasts are consumed annually in Massachusetts alone ; 

 and if we can judge of the future of this business bj^ its past 

 history, it will, before many years, consume all the sugar- 

 maple lumber the country can produce. For fuel, the wood 

 of this tree is generally considered superior to that of any 

 other, with the exception of the hickory. Mr. Bull estimates 

 its value at only 60, hickory being 100, and places before it, 

 in heat-giving qualities, no less than twentj'-two species of 

 North American trees and shrubs. 



The destruction of the sugar-maple has been so general in 

 this State, that sugar-making, which formerly held an impor- 

 tant place in Massachusetts industry, has, during the last 

 thirty years, diminished fully one-half, and that, too, in the 

 face of an enormously increased natural production, and of 

 prices which have considerably more than doubled during the 

 last forty years. 



There are, especially in the western part of the State, 

 many unproductive pastures, now almost worthless, which 

 would, if converted into sugar-orchards, yield in a few years 

 a handsome income. 



In regard to the age at which it is profitable to commence 

 drawing the sap for sugar, authorities diflfer ; but a tree 

 twenty-five years old will yield, on the average, ten pounds 

 of sugar, and will continue to be productive to this extent for 

 fifty or sixty years longer. One hundred and sixty trees 

 being allowed to the acre, the sugar-crop, from an orchard of 

 that size, would yield, at present prices, $273 annually; and 

 it must be remembered that, owing to the season of the year 

 at which sugar is made, no operation of the farm can be 

 carried on with so small an outlay for labor. The trees, 

 uninjured by the drawing off the sap, would increase in value 

 for a hundred years, and, at any age, find a ready sale, either 

 for fuel or for use in the arts. Its adaptability to all soils, 

 except where stagnant water stands, the rapidity of its 

 growth, its general thriftiness and undoubted beauty at all 

 seasons of the year, render the sugar-maple the most valuable 

 of all the North American trees for street and roadside plant- 

 ing, and it should be more generally used instead of the 

 American elm, which has been planted for this purpose in 



