220 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



May 



pie trees has decreased during the last 

 twenty years. The trade has been 

 supplied only by radically adulterating 

 the pure goods, or by manufacturing 

 a product entirely from foreign mate- 

 rials. It is conservatively estimated 

 that seven-eighths of what is sold as 

 maple syrup and sugar is a spurious 

 article. Most of the fabrications are 

 entirely harmless, but they are not 

 the real thing. Those fortunate enough 

 to have eaten the genuine article will 

 always demand it, and conditions 

 should be such that they may get it, 

 if they are willing to pay the price. 



The fault does not lie with the pro- 

 ducers, those who tap the trees and 

 reduce the sap to syrup and sugar, but 

 with the middlemen who buy the su- 

 gar and mix and adulterate it most 

 profitably for themselves. The extent 

 of this adulteration is illustrated by the 

 fact that while the amount of the raw 

 product has decreased, the whole 

 quantity has largely increased and 

 its market price has been reduced. Of 

 late years the price has fallen in direct 

 relation to the decrease in the price of 

 cane sugar. 



The most common substitutes used 

 in the adulteration of maple sugar and 

 syrup are other sugars and glucose. 

 Much of the so-called maple syrup 

 on the market is nothing but a combi- 

 nation of sweets with a little maple 

 molasses added to give the maple fla- 

 vor. There is also a maple syrup 

 which contains no maple at all, but the 

 flavor is obtained by adding to the 



compound an extract of hickory bark. 

 This extensive adulteration forces the 

 producers of pure maple syrup to com- 

 pete with cheap imitations. The price 

 of their raw product is kept down, and 

 the forests of maple are not as profita- 

 ble to their owners. as they otherwise 

 might be. 



The consumer is entitled to pure 

 goods, and the producer is entitled to 

 have his syrup and sugar bought and 

 used for what it is. The remedy is in 

 the hands of the producers, and they 

 can effect a change for the better in 

 two ways. They can associate them- 

 selves in State and large local compa- 

 nies, and, by selling direct to consum- 

 ers, cut out the middlemen ; and they 

 can also put their produce on the mar- 

 ket in the form not of sugar but of 

 syrup, which is most in demand. The 

 public will not object to paying a lit- 

 tle higher price for guaranteed pure 

 goods. The cost of making and hand- 

 ling syrup might be a little more than 

 that of sugar, but the net returns 

 would be larger, the public better 

 served, and the maple sugar industry 

 profitably extended. The association 

 plan has been adopted in Vermont 

 with excellent results. Annual meet- 

 ings are held, through whose influence 

 improved methods of production have 

 been adopted, a central market estab- 

 lished, and a registered trade-mark 

 created which is a guarantee of abso- 

 lute purity. In this way a trade of 

 good proportions has been built up. 



RE-CONQUEST OF NEVADA 



BY 



GUY ELLIOTT MITCHELL 



Secretary, The National Irrigation Association 



Kevada always been an arid that it has not, but that at one time a 



and desert region ? Its geologi- vast body of water, as great in area 



cal records, as indelibly carved in as Lake Erie, covered a portion of the 



sandstone and granite, showing the State. To-day, however, the aridity 



shore lines of ancient lakes, proclaim of the country is unquestioned and the 



