12 THE PRODUCTION OF MAPLE SIKUP AND SUGAR. 



been left on favorable situations from the original forest, and as a 

 rule no attempt has been made to renew them or keep up their vigor 

 since the adjoining land was first cleared. A young and thrifty set 

 of trees is' a rarity among the great number of old, open, and grass- 

 grown groves. 



As a rule these groves are on small farms, where they are used 

 quite as much for pasture as they are for sugar making! In cases 

 where the pasturage can not be spared, and where sugar is only a 

 small item in the farm production, there is little to be done for their 

 improvement. When the .grazing can be spared, however, and the 

 owner desires to increase the sugar-producing capacity of his trees, 

 it is undoubtedly better to bring about a reproduction from the old 

 trees than by planting a new stand. 



The first step to be taken in such a process of improvement in a 

 more or less open and grass-grown grove is the exclusion of stock. 

 After laying out proper driveways for sap gathering, the seedlings 

 should be allowed to come up everywhere else. All unsound and 

 dying trees should be cut out and young growth of all other species 

 than maple removed. In a very short time the young maple seed- 

 lings will take possession of the open ground and grow vigorously 

 where they get sufficient light. When they are 8 or 10 years old and 

 6 to 8 feet high, or more, the struggle for supremacy among them 

 will begin. In each opening large enough to permit the development 

 of a tree with a full crown, the strongest and most thrifty seedling 

 which has a favorable position should be selected, and the heads of 

 those within a radius of 12 feet or more about it lopped off with a 

 corn knife. The crowns of at least two-thirds of these trees must be 

 removed; the remaining crowns will insure a good ground protec- 

 tion and leaf fall until the favored tree has filled the opening. In 

 the case of small openings the thicket should remain unthinned ; the 

 struggle between the trees will keep them all suppressed, while they 

 will supply the necessary ground cover. The seedlings which come up 

 under the direct shade of the old trees will never develop to any size, 

 unless some of the large trees are removed by age or accident. Cattle 

 may be let in the grove when it has become too tangled for convenient 

 sap collecting and when the young growth desired for open places 

 has reached a height of 8 or 10 feet. They will soon open up the 

 smaller and undesirable growth. At the same time roadways should 

 be opened and the ground kept free of fallen limbs and trees. The 

 tall, slender seedlings will be a small obstruction in sap gathering, but 

 a little discomfort can be borne for the sake of the undoubted ad- 

 vantages obtained by a ground cover. 



THE IMPROVEMENT OF A DENSE YOUNG GROVE. 



In many parts of the maple-producing section a second-growth 

 forest has come up similar in composition to the original stand. The 

 sugar maple often forms a predominant part of such a wood, and in 

 that case all that is needed to turn it into a sugar grove is to remove 

 a number of interfering trees, thus giving the proper number of 

 maples a chance to develop the full crowns necessary to a maximum 

 yield of sap per acre. Preference should be given to the younger 



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