The Sugar Orchard a Factor in Michigan 

 Forestry. 



APLE SWEETS are products of forests worthy of 

 consideration in computing the values attached to 

 forestry. Income from the sugar bush has been 

 considered a mere incidental in connection with 

 the farm, but has lately been looked upon as 

 worthy of much consideration in computing the results of the 

 year's work. There has been little attention paid to the addi- 

 tion to sugar orchards, and little or no attention to their 

 continuance as producers of a continuous income in connection 

 with the farm management. The trees that furnish the sap, 

 under the primitive methods of tapping, rapidly deteriorated 

 and had to be used up for wood, and oftentimes went into 

 the log heap. The woodlands used as sugar orchards have 

 very generally been pastured during the summer season and 

 the undergrowth so completely destroyed as to prevent any 

 succession of timber. 



However, more recently, intelligent methods of tapping have 

 very generally prevailed, looking towards the least possible 

 injury to the tree and the continuance of its life and useful- 

 ness as a sugar producer. In rare instances men have done 

 some figuring with regard to the income from the sugar 

 orchard and decided that it was of sufficient- importance to 

 warrant them in making it a permanent reserve upon the 



farm, and methods have been adopted for its perpetuation. 

 Stock of all kinds have been kept out of the timber and the 

 more valuable maple trees given the best opportunity to grow ; 

 and in rare instances farmers have brought the younger trees 

 into use to succeed mature ones that have passed their age 

 of usefulness as sugar producers. It is a pity that a more 

 rational plan of treating the sugar bush had not been thought 

 out before the best maple timber had been destroyed in south- 

 ern Michigan. For the interest and education of our readers 

 we have brought together a series of views exhibiting the 

 more primitive methods of producing maple sweets as com- 

 pared with more recent and improved methods. Even the 

 most remote of our illustrations does not go back to the era 

 when the caldron kettle was used for boiling down the sap. 



There is no more settled purpose in forestry than this : To 

 secure the very best possible results in an intelligent agri- 

 culture, a reasonable proportion of the land should be under 

 a forest cover, which acts as an equalizer of moisture and 

 secures a valuable wind-break to protect the land from rapidly- 

 moving currents of air. Prof. Davenport aptly remarks : 



"It is evident from the standpoint of both public economy 

 and private enterprise, that the trees which should receive our 

 fostering care are those that will some time yield a revenue 

 to their owners. Trees whose timber is valuable and that 

 yield valuable products exert fully as beneficial effects upon 

 soil and climate. 



"For forestry purposes proper, those trees are most valuable 



45 



