THE PRODUCTION OF MAPLE SIRUP AND SUGAR. 



15 



from a few old trees along a bordering wall. The dominant trees 

 are from 30 to 40 feet in height and from 15 to ii.~> years old, with an 

 average diameter for the stand, suppressed trees included, of 2 inches, 

 breastnigh. The entire tract is very dense, and, although the extreme 

 difference in the age of the tiros is about 10 years, the difference in 

 their size is far greater than the discrepancy in age would explain. 

 More than half the stand is 1 inch and under in diameter, and yet 



FIG. 1. Stand of maple saplings in need of thinning. 



many of these trees are as old as near neighbors three times as large. 

 This results from the extreme vitality of the sugar maple, and shows 

 the urgent necessity for thinning at an early age. Two plats, each 

 0.7 acre in size, were thinned, with the following results: 



Tli inn in ff of a maple-sugar thicket, showing the number of trees per acre of 

 nti-'Htux diameters in the original stand, the number removed, and number 

 left. 



Figures 1 and 2 show the tract before and after thinning. Twelve 

 cords to the acre of fair firewood were cut, an amount which should 



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