53o EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



vuriatioii in (lilViMcnt parts of our country iieces.sitato.s, of course, 

 very difl'ei-ont treatment, l)ut the time must surely soon come when 

 the cxpei"imental period of aj'i'icultural education has proved what 

 the right treatment for (>ach part of the country is, and every count}^ 

 should be persuaded to carry out its share of tlie work." 



Mr. Dymond expresses the belief that the conuuercial development 

 of agriculture in Great Britain "would take place far more <iuickl3Mf 

 agricultural education were better systematized in the whole country." 

 Taken in connection with the present agitation for industrial educa- 

 tion in F^ngland, Mr. Dymond's conclusions from his observations at 

 home and abroad are full of interest. They are in harmony with the 

 trend of thought and the tendencies in this country, wliere the relation 

 between commercial development in agriculture and agricultural edu- 

 cation is becoming more apparent every j^ear. 



The recent Imlletin of the Vermont Experiment Station on the flow 

 of maple sap is worthy of more than passing notice, both on account of 

 the comparative novelty of the subject and the systematic (character of 

 the work which it reports. There has been very little research in this 

 field, and what is known has been gained largeh' by inference from 

 studies of quite a variet}^ of trees and plants rather than from work 

 done on the sugar maple primarily. This interesting and attractive 

 bulletin of one hundred and forty pages records the most thorough 

 and extensive series of investigations which have been made anywhere 

 on the maple-sugar industry, and occupies a unique place in experi- 

 ment station literature. 



Maple sugar is distinctly an American product, as the sugar maple 

 does not grow in Europe except in the arboretum; and in this country 

 maple-sugar making is confined within rather restricted limits. The 

 product is said to have been known to the American Indians prior to 

 1673. The art of making it was learned from them by the early Ver- 

 mont settlers, who depended almost entirely upon the maple for their 

 domestic sugar supply. Indeed, within a generation or so it was used 

 to a considerable extent in place of "" sale'- sugar in the localities where 

 it was made. Now, however, maple sugar and sirup are regarded as 

 luxuries, commanding a relatively high price and being much sought 

 for by certain people on account of their characteristic flavor; but they 

 are so extensively adulterated and imitated as to make the puie prod- 

 ucts quite diflficult to obtain. 



The average annual maple-sugar crop of the United States is placed 

 at approximately forty-five million pounds, although it fluctuates con- 

 sidera])ly with the season. The census figures show variations from 

 less than thirty million pounds in 1899, v/hich was an unusually poor 

 year, to nearly fifty-three million pounds in 1859. It is made princi- 

 pall}^ in Vermont, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New 



