47 



that, because I have sent out probably from 2,500 to 3,000 copies but 

 I don't stop at that; if they don't write me for goods I don't let them 

 alone. In the spring and fall I come at them again; I get out circular 

 letters telling them something more about the product and I mail 

 these. I don't seal them and so my postage isn't large; although 

 in the beginning it is quite an expense but the expense lessens con- 

 tinuously. I change my circular letters making them somewhat 

 flowery. The people in the west don't know the season of maple 

 syrup and don't know when they want syrup until they see some- 

 thing that will remind them of it and you would be surprised to see 

 how the orders come in after this circular letter has gone out in the 

 spring and fall. 



"One season I got an artist to make a maple leaf. I had it put 

 on a postcard. It cost me five or six dollars for say 500 of them. 

 It had on it the name of the groves and the compliments of the season 

 just as if it was Christmas time. It was maple sugar time or maple 

 syrup time and we wanted to remind our friends of it. Another 

 season I took a picture showing some trees in my grove with covered 

 buckets, and sent that out. 



"My price is SI. 25 per gallon. Perhaps I made a mistake in 

 not starting my price higher but I never take less than $1 .00 per gallon 

 and my product is not going into the commission market where jobbers 

 cut the price so I get nothing for it. The last runs, the dark syrup, 

 I sell at $1.00 a gallon and there seems to be no complaint whatever, 

 and I find that it pays better than to ship my surplus product and 

 have returns come back so small I can hardly see them. I have spent 

 a great deal of time and work in establishing a market but the work 

 lessens as time goes on. Orders are coming in more easily and I am 

 shipping from early in the fall until the season opens up again. For 

 the past few years my product has been entirely taken care of in this 

 way." 



PROFITS FROM SUGAR MAKING. 



A prize winner in the syrup contest, referred to on later pages, 

 who taps three thousand trees, kept an accurate account of his transac- 

 tions for the season of 1913. 



The sugar bush, which is on rocky land of little value for agriculture, 

 is situated two hundred miles from his home. The bush is on sloping 

 ground which enables the owner to gather the sap by gravitation. For 

 this purpose he has laid a system of galvanized iron pipes connected with 

 twenty-two reservoirs distributed throughout the bush for receiving 

 the sap which flows directly to the receiving vat at the sugar house. 



