RURAL MANUFACTURES 303 



tion of maple sugar amounted to 47,100 pounds. 

 That year's product Avas rated as 96 per cent of a 

 high-grade medium.^ A generation ago Eugene 

 Davenport of Woodland, Barry County, urged the 

 growing of sugar maples as a profitable investment, 

 and he set forth detailed calculations of outlay and 

 income to the conclusion that his one thousand maple 

 trees yielded a product of $240 net, or 24 cents a 

 tree, in a season. Trees of twenty years' growth were 

 in the producing class and were annually, without 

 fail, making an income for their owner with a rela- 

 tively small outlay of labor and capital. The demands 

 for maple wood for flooring, furniture, and wood 

 carbonization furnace requirements have undoubtedly 

 greatly depleted stands of sugar maples, yet the 

 business still has its place in Michigan agriculture. 

 ]\Iichigan's output in 1009 was less than that of 

 Vermont, Xew York, Pennsylvania, iSTew Hampshire, 

 Maryland, and Ohio. It was estimated in 1920 that 

 there were some 1,800 maple sirup producers in the 

 State furnishing 150,000 gallons of sirup. - 



With a view to rehal)ilitating the once flourishing 

 maple sirup industry of Michigan there was organ- 

 ized in 1917 the Michigan Maple Syrup Producers 

 Association, for the purpose of establishing standard 

 grades for the product of its members, providing a 

 label indicative of the soi;rce and quality of the 

 sirup, and to discipline members violating the rules 

 of the organization. Four years later, this associa- 



»"Mich. Crop Kept.," May, 1920, 4. 

 'Michigan Farmer, March 5, 1921, 296. 



