60 



MAPLE-SAP SIRUP, 



Color of samples grouped by States. 



FLAVOR. 



The flavor of maple sirup is peculiar to itself. Tasters and judges 

 classify the flavor as mild, strong, buddy, and molasses-like. Some 

 speak of the strong flavor as being " woodsy" in distinction from 

 the true mild flavor of the clean, pure maple sirup. A great many 

 users of sirup, however, prefer this " woodsy " taste, which is generally 

 characteristic of the sirup made by boiling down in the open, in 

 iron kettles, the sap collected in wooden buckets. Some have 

 described the sirup coming from one section as being milder or 

 stronger than that from other sections, and the products of the 

 colder northern regions, as Canada and Vermont, as being different 

 from the sirup made in the warmer regions of Ohio and Pennsyl- 

 vania. In this investigation such sectional distinctions were not 

 observed. The flavors said to be characteristic of certain regions 

 seem to be due to the manner of collection of sap and the manufac- 

 ture of the sirup rather than to peculiarities of the sap of the locality. 

 Just as mild a sirup was obtained in Canada and Vermont as in Ohio, 

 and the reverse also was true, the product varying with the method 

 of production and manufacture rather than with the locality. 



MOISTURE CONTENT. 



The average figure for moisture content in the 395 samples from 

 the United States was 34.19 per cent. This figure includes the 71 

 samples that were reboiled by the laboratory on account of crys- 

 tallization; excluding these samples the average of the remaining 

 324 samples becomes 33.87 per cent. The range of variation in the 

 original samples, whether the reboiled samples were included or not, 

 was from 24.86 to 48.14 per cent. The following table shows what 



