no 



Ciuiadlan Forestry Journal, March, iq20 



i,ooo SPEAKERS ON PROTEC- i.ooo communities will deliver ad- 



TION OF THE FORESTS. dresses to school children and other 



The Canadian Forestry 7\ssociation .C^atherings on forest protection and 



has under formation a Speakers' Bu- kindred subjects. School boards are 



reau, l)y which selected speakers in co-o])eratin.<( with the enterprise. 



The Maple Sugar Industry in Canada 



The makino^ of ma])le suq'ar and 

 syrup has become but a memory in 

 the recollection of residents in many 

 of the older parts of Canada where 

 even the woodots have sfiven ud their 

 places to culti\'ated fields. The in- 

 dustry is still, however, an important 

 one over large areas in Quebec, and 

 to a less extent in Ontario and the 

 provinces down by the sea. 



Suo'ar making from the maple, 

 which is confined entirely to this 

 continent, had a very early begin- 

 ning. Before the advent of the white 

 man the Indian had learned to ex- 

 tract and concentrate the sap of the 

 maple tree. On the apDroach of 

 spring the trees were gashed, with 

 the tomahawk, in a slanting direction 

 and beneath the opening made was 

 inserted a wooden chip or spout to 

 direct the fluid drop by drop into the 

 receptacle resting on the ground. 

 The sap was caught in a birch dish 

 and boiled in earthen kettles. The 

 small quantity of dark, thick syrup 

 this made, was the only sugar avail- 

 able to the Indians, and is stated by 

 early writers to have been highly 

 prized. 



The early settlers from the Old 

 Land learned from the Indians the 

 art of sugar making, and indeed fol- 

 lowed for many years their crude 

 methods of manufacture. Even yet 

 primitive equipment and methods 

 are stated to be used in back sections 

 of the country that turn out their an- 

 nual crop of dark, inferior syrup and 

 sugar. 



For perhaps a century the .white 

 man followed very closely the primi- 

 tive methods of the Indian, save the 

 substitution of iron or copper kettles 

 for vessels of cla)^ or bark. In the 

 early days before the timber acquired 



much value the axe continued to be 

 used for tapping the trees, the cap 

 was caught in wooden troughs and 

 conveyed in buckets on the shoulders 

 with a sap yoke to a central point to 

 be boiled. No sugar bush was fully 

 equipped without snowshoes, which 

 were frequently found necessary in 

 gathering the sap. The boiling was 

 done in arge iron kettles suspended 

 from a pole in the open woods in a 

 sheltered location with no protection 

 from the sun, rain or snow or the 

 ashes, falling leaves, moss and bits of 

 bark that were driven about by the 

 wind. 



The maple products made by this 

 crude method were strong in flavor, 

 dark in color and variable in quality. 



Until about fifty years ago there 

 was little improvement made in the 

 methods of sugar makers ; but since 

 that time the advance has kept pace 

 with that in other branches of agri- 

 culture until it has become a more or 

 less highly organized commercial in- 

 dustry. 



An early improvement was the 

 substitution of the auger for the axe 

 in tapping, coopered buckets took the 

 pace of the birch bark "caso" or hewn 

 sap trough, while the kettle gave 

 way to the evaporating pan, which 

 has, in latter years, developed into 

 the modern evaporator with cor- 

 rugated bottom and separate com- 

 partments. Not alone for the con- 

 servation of the life of the tree, but 

 also for the cleanliness in sugar mak- 

 ing, the wooden spout has almost 

 disappeared in the most advanced 

 sections, in fact the ntendency now is 

 toward the use of metal in every ar- 

 ticle of equipment with which the 

 sap, syrup or sugar comes in contact. 

 Furthermore, the increasing cost of 



