Canadian Forestry Journal, January, 1914 



attractive to the farmer who must 

 of necessity count on an early return 

 from his investment. The only 

 natural forest tree in Canada which 

 may be cropped while it is slowly 

 growing to maturity for lumber is 

 the maple tree. This may be tapped 

 with profit for the production of 

 maple sugar after it has grown to 

 the size of six or eight inches, and so 

 provide a revenue long before it is 

 large enough to give the best returns 

 as lumber. In twenty -five or thirty 

 years after a tree the size of a broom 

 handle has been transplanted, it 

 should yield a very profitable return 

 for the time and money invested. 



The most suitable locations in this 

 Province of Quebec for maple groves 

 are along the ridges and hillsides, 

 and it is not difficult to find many 

 hillsides gradually sloping, which 

 have been cleared or partially 

 cleared, and are now grown up to 

 thickets of hardwood, in which 

 maple largely predominates. Mr. R. 

 H. Campbell, Director of the For- 

 estry Branch of the Department of 

 the Interior, concludes an interest- 

 ing comparison between the pine 

 tree and the maple tree as follows : 

 'When one considers the revenue 

 derived aftei- the thirtieth year from 

 the sap, and the higher prices ob- 

 tainable for thinnings as fuel, or 

 making acetic acid, wood alcohol 

 and charcoal, there seems but little 

 doubt that the maple would in the 

 end be the more profitable tree. This 

 is particularly true in the case of the 

 small wood-lot owner, or farmer, 

 who has many uses for the wood, 

 and especially where the maple al- 

 ready exists in the stand and natural 

 reproduction can be secured.' 



Let us examine this problem of a 

 maple orchard ideal in location, ar- 

 rangement and outfit for producing 

 maple sugar of the highest quality 

 at the lowest possible cost. To pro- 

 duce an article economically is, of 

 course, to produce it in fairly large 

 quantities. It is, therefore probably 



wise to develop as large an area as 

 possible in one sugar orchard. The 

 chief expense in administering a 

 sugar orchard is in gathering the sap 

 from tree to tree. The quickest and 

 most economical method of doing 

 this is by gravity through a system 

 of pipe lines. The orchard prefer- 

 ably should be placed around a slop- 

 ing hillside, not too rough or steep 

 for the necessary road where team- 

 ing is needed, and this entire slope 

 should focus at some point lower 

 down, where the sugar cabin and 

 storage tanks should be placed. 



It is not difficult to find in this 

 Province of Quebec many suitable 

 areas in which more than 30 or 40 

 acres of hillside are tributary to a 

 suitable point for a sugar cabin. If 

 we take, then, for illustration, a unit 

 of thirty acres, sloping preferably to 

 the east or southeast, we would in 

 time be able, by proper planting, to 

 have an orchard of 4,000 trees or 

 more, estimating 133 trees per acre. 

 This should mean 4,000 buckets, or, 

 perhaps, more, if some trees are large 

 enough to permit of more than one 

 bucket. If this area contains maple 

 trees already, it simplifies the under- 

 taking very much, as it will not be 

 necessary for the owner to wait 

 twenty -five years for the full matur- 

 ity of his orchard. If the other var- 

 ieties of wood are first cleared out, 

 and the vacant places filled by plant- 

 ing young maples where necessary, 

 the orchard will go on improving 

 year by year. 



In considering the economical ad- 

 ministration, small subsidiary cabins 

 should be built at convenient points 

 to allow for the storage of tanks, 

 covers, spouts and piping, each cabin 

 to contain from 500 to 1,000 buckets. 

 This facilitates tapping in the early 

 spring, when the snow is deep and 

 the transportation is difficult. With 

 a system of two-inch galvanized 

 sheet iron pipe in 10 ft. lengths, 

 which can be placed in position on a 

 series of posts, or suspended from a 



