FORESTRY AND MAPLE SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



BY 



COLONEL WILLIAM F. FOX, 



SUPERINTENDENT OF STATE FORESTS OF NEW YORK. 



FORESTRY is a business in which and charcoal from the Catskill wood- 

 people seek to harvest the product lands, the Christmas trees from the 

 of woodlands by intelligent, conserva- Maine woods, and the sugar from the 

 tive methods. It looks to the future as Vermont maples. 



well as the present, and the best fores- Some people may not think of maple 

 try is that which provides for future sugar as one of our forest products, al- 

 and permanent revenues as well as pres- though it belongs to that class, as much 

 ent needs. This is true whether the so as logs, bark, or turpentine. The 

 forest be large or small, a government maple groves, sugar bushes, or orchards, 

 reserve or farmer's woodlot, the pine as they are variously called, may not 

 lands of a lumberman or the maple or- suggest forests; but when a man taps 

 chard of a sugar-maker. In each case from one to three thousand trees, as is 

 the true forester is the one who trusts done by some, his land must include a 

 to coming years for the vindication of substantial forest, although it may not 

 his methods, who not only harvests his be a wilderness. The largest sugar 

 crop, but plants another one, and who bush in the State of New York is in St. 

 is content that others shall reap where Lawrence county, situated in the heart 

 he has sown. of the great Adirondack forest. The 



In this country people are apt to think owner tapped forty thousand trees last 



of forestry as only another name for spring, and hung out over fifty thousand 



lumbering, and of forest products as buckets. His tract includes twenty 



merely including logs and pulpwood ; thousand acres, and he considers the 



but forestry recognizes not only these sugar making as the most important 



main products, but takes into consider- part of his forest work, 



ation also what are termed by-products. Then, again, the commercial and in- 



In some European forests the revenue dustrial magnitude of this branch of 



from the by-products exceeds that ob- forestry is little understood. The for- 



tained from logs or timber. In Switz- ests of the northern states yield annually 



erland there is a planted forest which over 51,000,000 pounds of maple sugar 



yields the largest annual revenue of any and 3,000,000 gallons of syrup. Of the 



woodlands in Europe. The revenue is granulated sugar made in the United 



permanent also, as much so as the States, over 17 percent is obtained from 



yearly interest on a government bond ; our woodlands. 



but 50 per cent of the income and over The main question is How far are the 



50 per cent of the cuttings represent principles of modern forestry applicable 



material other than saw-logs or timber. to this industry? Is it practicable to 



In America, where there is little or no maintain the output of your maple 



sale for fuel wood, the by-products are woods, and, at the same time, render 



of less importance. Yet there are places them more productive and profitable? 



where they form no small part of the What silvicultural work can be under- 



profits derived from the management of taken with a view to transmitting the 



woodlands, as, for instance, the tar and property to your successors, unimpaired 



turpentine obtained from the southern in value and capable of yielding a per- 



pineries, the tanning material from the manent revenue? With failing orchards 



hemlock and oak forests of Pennsylva- and an increasing demand for the pro- 



nia, the wood alcohol, acetate of lime, duct, what can be accomplished in the 



