13 



THE BED MAPLE. 



The red maple has the widest range of all its family in America. 

 The natural home of this tree is along the borders of streams 

 and on low, swampy ground. In the North it often forms a pure 

 growth in such places, but it is along the Ohio and the Mississippi 

 and their tributaries that it reaches its greatest perfection. Like the 

 sugar maple it is tolerant of shade, and seedlings sprout plentifully 

 from the heavy crops of seeds, which ripen in the late spring or early 

 summer. As a swamp tree it associates in the Southern and Middle 

 States with the sweet magnolia and loblolly bay, the bald cypress, 

 various oaks, and the red, black, and cotton gums. It does well, also, 

 on less moist lands. It is generally of vigorous growth, but the 

 grown trees are inclined to unsoundness at the butt. As a sugar- 

 producing tree it enters into consideration in the Middle and Western 

 States only where the sugar maple is not plentiful. It has an abun- 

 dant flow of sap, from which good sugar has been made, and the general 

 opinion that the early starting buds cause "buddy" or discolored sap 

 may prove quite unfounded. As a rule, red maple has been tapped 

 in districts where the climate is unfavorable to any kind of maple- 

 sugar making, and this fact, together with the general lack of care 

 and skill, may account for the existing prejudice against it. Condi- 

 tions being equal, it is almost certain that the sugar maple is superior 

 to red maple in every way, but there are large districts in which no 

 better sugar tree than the red maple is found. In such localities 

 experiments should be made to determine its true value. 



THE SILVER MAPLE. 



The silver maple ranges from New Brunswick to western Florida, 

 and west through southern Ontario and Michigan to eastern North 

 and South Dakota, Kansas, and Indian Territory. In the North it 

 appears in mixture with the sugar maple, but in general prefers lower 

 altitudes and moister soils. It reaches its greatest perfection in the 

 valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, where it is one of the character- 

 istic trees on the lowlands of these rivers and their tributaries. The 

 flow of sap is plentiful and sweet, but, like that of the red maple, 

 liable to discoloration, and the season is short and uncertain. It is, 

 like the red maple, only to be considered as a sugar tree outside the 

 region where the sugar maple is a dominant species. 



THE OREGON MAPLE. 



This is the only western species which can be considered as a pro- 

 ducer of sugar. In localities where the season is favorable the sap is 

 of good quality and the flow considerable. The tree is found west 

 of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada, from the Canadian border to 



