OTHER GIFTS OF THE FOREST 161 



of better methods a tree can be cupped much longer and still 

 produce valuable wood for boards. 



The Indians taught us to make and enjoy maple sugar. In 

 northern Minnesota one tribe still continues this ancestral in- 

 dustry, selling pure maple sugar in birch bark containers, much 

 the same as their forefathers made before the coming of the 

 white man. Today the chief center of production is in the 

 Northeastern States. 



Both the sugar and syrup are products of the hard maple or 

 sugar maple (Acer saccharum). The method of extracting the 

 sap and making it into the finished product is simple. 



Tapping the tree begins about the middle of March and sap 

 flows for the following month or six weeks. Two holes, less 

 than a half inch in diameter are bored about two inches deep 

 in the trunk and a wooden spigot is inserted in these holes to 

 conduct the sap to a bucket directly beneath. This sap is then 

 collected, poured into great iron kettles and boiled to a syrup. 

 Cooking longer, until the syrup is brought to the consistency 

 of wax, produces maple sugar. An average tree provides over 

 twenty gallons of sap each season and this can be boiled down 

 to about four pounds of sugar or two quarts of syrup. Proper 

 tapping is not injurious to the trees. 



As certain woods increased in value wood veneers have be- 

 come another important forest product. Some kinds of wood 

 are so valuable and are becoming so scarce that it pays to cut 

 them into very thin sheets, or slices and glue them to a backing 

 of some more common and cheaper wood. For furniture or 

 cabinet work these thin pieces or veneer present the same 

 appearance as if they were of solid construction, but this piec- 

 ing together has other advantages than economy. Drawers, for 



