SEP - 7 1914 



Division of Forestry 

 University of California 



THE PRODUCTION OF MAPLE SIRUP AND SUGAR, 



INTRODUCTION. 



The production of maple sirup and maple sugar is purely an 

 American industry, Canada being the only country outside of the 

 United States where they are made. At the time of the Napoleonic 

 wars sugar was produced from the maple trees in Bohemia, and the 

 industry received substantial means of encouragement from the 

 Government of that country. Large groves of maple trees were 

 planted and much attention paid to them, but, as the yield of sugar 

 was small, and such a length of time elapsed before the trees could 

 be tapped, the industry soon died out. At about that time the sugar 

 beet came into prominence. 



The earliest explorers in this country found the Indians making 

 sugar from the maple tree, and in some sections, especially along the 

 St. Lawrence River, producing it in quantity for trade. "The white 

 people began to make maple products and to apply more advanced 

 methods to their manufacture. The crude methods of the Indians 

 were soon improved upon, but beyond the tapping and boiling the 

 general process remains the same as at that time. For many years, 

 especially with the early settlers of the northern part of the United 

 States, and even down in Kentucky arid Virginia, maple sugar was 

 the only sugar used. In the reports of the early meetings of the 

 numerous agricultural societies are letters from various sugar makers 

 describing their attempts to produce an article equal to the imported 

 sugar, or muscovado, of the West Indies. Cane-sugar methods of 

 manufacture were tried, with varying degrees of success. A few 

 refineries for producing white sugar were built and operated with 

 maple sugar as their raw supply. The iron kettle, birch-bark tank, 

 wooden spiles, and old way of tapping yielded a dark, ill-tasting 

 product, but with care and changes in methods and apparatus the 

 products were improved. In those days many trees were killed by 

 the crude methods of tapping, and much stress was laid upon this 

 operation by the early writers. 



To-day maple sugar and maple sirup are considered delicacies and 

 are not produced in such quantities as formerly. The aggregate of 

 all pure maple products and the many imitations may be the same, 

 for it is said that were all the maple trees cut doAvn, and thus the 

 supply of maple sap cut off, no drop in the quantity of sirup or sugar 

 would be noted. Within the last six or seven years there has been 

 a renewed tendency toward the production of a better grade of maple 

 products. 



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