AMERICAN FORESTRY 



401 



LET THE CHIPS FALL WHERE THEY MAY 



sweet, wherever the tree grows. But the 

 sap of the birch, and that of the sugar pine 

 of the far Northwest, also yields sugar. It 

 takes more than a sugar maple tree to make 

 maple sugar. The tobacco plant, under cul- 

 tivation, will grow anywhere, but only the 

 Vuelta Abajo produces the true Havana 

 leaf. 



Vermont is the home and center of real 

 maple sugar, but the article is produced in 

 excellent quality throughout northern New 

 England and portions of Canada. The ma- 

 ple sugar of northern Michigan, of Minne- 

 sota, of the North Carolina and Tennessee 

 mountains, is not readily recognizable as 

 "maple" by the cultivated New England 

 palate. For one thing, the sap there is 

 below quality, owing to the nature and in- 

 gredients of the soil in those remote re- 

 gions. And in the second place, proper 

 methods of manufacture and of refining are 

 generally unknown there. The Chippewa 

 Indian of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minne- 

 sota boils maple sap in a camp kettle and 

 strains the product through his blanket; 

 but should we call that "maple syrup"? 

 Assuredly not. It takes the hillsides of 

 New England, and the inherited and de- 

 veloped skill of the New England sugar 

 maker to produce the genuine article. 



The American Forestry Association is 

 simply raising false hopes in distributing 

 broadcast, in regions far removed from the 

 sweet influences of the limestone and gran- 

 ite ridges of New England, the maritime 

 provinces and Quebec, its bulletin of in- 

 formation on the subject of maple sugar 

 production. What has never been there, 



Just Plant a Tree 



Woman's World. Immediately fol- 

 lowing the armistice the American 

 Forestry Association proposed the 

 idea of planting a tree for each sol- 

 dier in a community who lost his life 

 in the war. Schools, colleges, churches 

 and patriotic organizations have 

 planted trees and established "Roads 

 of Remembrance." 



For the small town and the rural 

 school there is no finer memorial than 

 tree planting. It has a special signifi- 

 cance, symbolising growth, strength, 

 and enduring beauty from the very 

 soil from which comes their life. 

 These trees are living, growing testi- 

 monies, not along to those who died, 

 but a strengthening evidence that 

 those who are left behind are not un- 

 mindful of the sacrifice, nor negligent 

 in love of country. 



As a soldier might express it : 

 When I die, please plant for me a 

 tree, to keep alive the memory of 

 other boys and men like me, who 

 fought no glory, asked no fame, ex- 

 cept to die in Freedom's name. Please 

 do that little thing for me, when I 

 am gone just plant a tree. 



namely, a really good article of locally pro- 

 duced maple sugar or syrup, will never be. 

 It is possible, however, that the vain at- 

 tempt induced by the Association's bulletin 

 will be of eventual benefit, by cultivating in 

 distant regions the desire and the taste for 

 a delicious article of which New England 

 must ever retain a monopoly. 



Now comes a voice from the central west 

 raised in protest at the claims of the 

 Transcript. Again we quote : 



57. Paul Dispatch: New England is a 

 queer blending of the erudite and the recon- 

 dite. The Boston Transcript is much dis- 

 turbed because the American Forestry As- 

 sociation has had the temerity to intimate 

 that maple sugar is produced beyond the 

 confines of the cultured and fortunate, 

 though somewhat limited, district over 

 which it presides with conceded grace and 

 distincton. It resents the possibility, even 

 remote, of the real article of Acer Sac- 

 charinum growing outside of New England 

 and adjacent regions in Canada and pro- 

 tests especially against distinguishing as 

 "maple syrup" the product of "the Chippe- 

 wa Indians of Minnesota, Wisconsin and 

 Michigan," referring loftily to this favored 

 section as remote and necessarily barba- 

 rous. 



It is not surprising that Boston visualizes 

 Minnesota as part of the Wild West, with 

 village fortified against surprises by ma- 

 rauding Indians, and the lives of farmers 

 divided between forays against ravening 

 wolves and periodical hunts of buffaloes 

 roaming in countless hordes over the prai- 

 ries. The extent to which the Transcript 

 is plunged into deepest darkness in this re- 

 spect may be deduced from its disgusted 

 assertion that the maple syrup of Minnesota 

 is produced by the Chippewa Indian, "who 

 boils maple sap in a camp kettle and strains 

 it through his blanket." 



The maple tree of the approved New 

 England variety may be rare in Minnesota, 

 but not half so rare as the Chippewa Indian 

 in this industrial activity or any other ac- 

 tivity. The spectacle of a noble red man 

 boiling sugar is a novelty which Minnesota 

 would yearn to see. Exhibitions of pioneer 

 days in which the aborigines figured have 

 been occasional features of the State Fair, 

 but to stage such a performance as our cul- 

 tured Boston contemporary imagines a part 

 of daily spring life in Minnesota would 

 startle State Fair visitors as a piece of 

 melodrama worked out of overwrought 

 imagination. 



Thus while Boston and St. Paul battle for 

 the maple sugar spotlight the readers' 

 thought is turned to trees. Next month 

 other phases of this great subject will be 

 taken up by the editors. 



The educational value of these things is 

 well expressed by the Chicago Tribune, 

 which has taken up the campaign for 

 Roads of Remembrance. The Tribune says : 



Chicago Tribune : The memorial tree 

 planting which will be dedicated to every 

 service man in the war, and which will be of 

 great benefit in the reforestation of the 

 country, has the approval of virtually every 

 citizen and association of citizens. Their 



A LIVING MEMORIAL ACROSS AMERICA 



McCutcheon, in the Chicago Tribune. 



"In honor of each and every United States 

 soldier and sailor in the world war a tree along 

 the great American highways, every tree to bear 

 the name of a man who served." 



expressions approve the sentiment and the 

 utility, and it is fairly certain that the 

 movement is on the way towards the or- 

 ganization which can operate, get the trees, 

 plant them, and inscribe them one to each 

 individual soldier and sailor in the service 

 of the United States. 



The project interests nearly a third of the 

 country, directly and intimately, appealing 

 to affection for some man who served, and 

 the sentiment itself will interest all the 

 country, whether a family name is carried 

 by a tree or not. The intelligence of the 

 country will approve as much as its senti- 

 ment does. 



Americans have been cutting trees with- 

 out much thought of the future. They know 

 they have torrential rains, which not only 

 cause floods, but which wash the soil into 

 the streams and carry it off, impoverish- 

 ing the land. They know that China now 

 starves because the land long ago lost its 

 trees and its soil. They know that China 

 and the United States have a great deal in 

 tommon in the character of their rains and 

 of their action, unchecked, upon the soil 



Americans can retain the productivity of 

 their land by restoring trees where they are 

 needed. Such a project as reforestation or- 

 dinarily proceeds slowly against inertia. If 

 it is injected with a living sentiment and 

 turned to the purposes of a great national 

 memorial peculiarly appealing to the people, 

 it should go ahead with speed and effective- 

 ness. 



