SUGAR MAPLE 277 



consistently belongs to the Black species. As the habits of 

 growth are almost identical and the methods of propagation 

 entirely so, a consideration of the Sugar Maple will serve 

 equally as well for the other and hence that plan is adopted. 



There is probably more diversity of form and habit with 

 the Sugar Maples than there is with any other species of 

 timber trees. In a plantation of fifty-one trees, about twenty- 

 five years old, on the author's grounds, growing mainly in 

 the open, there can be seen nine different forms of crowns, 

 leaves, or bark. Still, they are all Sugar Maples, with not 

 enough difference even to justify classing them as distinct 

 varieties. There will be no difference in value of wood 

 when cut. 



The natural range is along our northern border from 

 Maine to Minnesota, south, through the Northern States 

 and on the Alleghany Mountains, to northern Georgia and 

 western Florida, and west to eastern Kansas and eastern 

 Nebraska. There is a somewhat modified species in the 

 Carolinas, northern Georgia, northern Mississippi, and 

 some of the other Southern States, the wood of which is 

 softer than that of the northern tree, and for hardness lies 

 between that and the Soft Maple. The region of the best 

 development of the Sugar Maple is central New England, 

 New York, Pennsylvania, and the Great Lake states. 

 Trees from one hundred to one hundred and twenty feet 

 high and four feet in diameter, sometimes showing a stem 

 fifty or more feet without a limb, are not at all uncommon. 

 It flourishes best on well-drained soils, but thrives fairly 

 well where the soil is not rich, if it is not too wet. It is 

 most frequently found on low ridges, along the slopes and 

 base of mountains and hills, and also on moderately dry 

 intervales. It can endure some shade, but if grown in the 

 open, it assumes a somewhat low, spreading, round, and 

 quite dense crown. If grown in a close stand, it will send 

 up its stem until sufficient light is obtained and then branch 

 into a round crown with large limbs. 



The wood is heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, generally 



