MAPLE-SUGAR AND SIRUP 201 
cheap books, and good cheap books and papers mean 
much pleasure and profit to many people. In the 
Orient a good grade of paper is manutactured by 
hand by the natives from the inner bark of the paper 
mulberry. 
4. Marire-SuGarR AND SIRUP 
The maple-sugar and sirup industry is of special 
interest because it is the only forest industry in this 
country which is scientifically developed. It is also 
a much more extensive industry than people ordi- 
narily suppose. 
Over 50,000,000 pounds of sugar and 3,000,000 
gallons of sirup are manufactured every year from 
the sap of the maple-tree. The State of Vermont is 
the leader, having produced in one year about 15,- 
000,000 pounds of sugar and 100,000 gallons of 
sirup. The sugar, or rock-maple, is the principal 
source of the product. 
This is truly an American industry; in fact, we 
are indebted to the Indian for the first knowledge 
of it. He tapped the tree, collected the sap, and boiled 
it in rude receptacles. We practise to-day the same 
old method, although it has been much improved. 
The product is of course cleaner and the implements 
better. 
The first products of our forests were peltry, 
