VERMONT MAPLE SUGAR 175 



pays, and many have even gone to the extent of 



cutting off their groves for wood, preferring the 



cash from the trees once for all. This, of course, 



is killing the goose, for it greatly depreciates the 



value of the farm. Indeed it is an axiom in the 



Green Mountain State that a farm without a 



sugar orchard is an unmarketable commodity. 



For all that it is safe to say that for one reason 



or another not half the available trees in the State 



are tapped yearly. 



Even about Wilmington this is true. I should 



say that there not one grove in three is being 



worked this year. To begin with, there is the 



investment in " sugar tools," no light expense for 



the man of small capital. Good sugar workers 



are not so common as they once were, and require 



good wages when they are to be obtained at all. 



It is customary to pay a man fifty dollars a month 



and his board, and his wages run whether the 



sap does or not. A start may be made and then 



adverse weather or the idiosyncrasies of the trees 



may keep the gang waiting a week, or even three. 



Even the men hired by the day get two dollars 



to two and a half. In some years the snow is 



j 



