September 4, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



423 



The Sugar Maple and Maple Sugar. 



A FORCIBLE writer has aptly said : " Timber trees declarc 

 a dividend only at death, and there is constant and strong 

 temptation to their destruction. The Sugar Maple declares 

 annual dividends and the tree survives." It is difficult to in- 

 duce men to plant or protect trees by urging their beauty or 

 usefulness in modifying the climate. But in the case of the 

 Sugar Maple a direct argument can be addressed to the 

 pocket of the farmer. The value of the Sugar Maple, and 

 the rare delicacy and excellence of the product derived 

 from it, is so great, in my view, that on my own farm, a fertile 

 and productive one, there is no portion which yields more 

 satisfactory returns than does a forty-acre sugar-bush. Nor 

 am I alone. Mr. Eugene Davenport, of Woodland, Michigan, 

 states, states that his forty-acre sugar-bush pays a net profit of 

 twelve per cent, on a high valuation. I believe he has not 

 overstated the facts. There is a delicacy of flavor about Maple 

 syrup that is equalled by no other sweet. Art cannot coun- 

 terfeit it, and from the nature of the case it will always be a 

 luxui'y. Therefore, we can count on a ready market at a high 

 figure for a product that can never be depreciated by excessive 

 competition. 



Many persons make a mistake in clearing out too thoroughly 

 the underbrush from the sugar-bush. We must remember 

 that trees grown in thick forests have been protected by neigh- 

 boring trees and brush-wood from the severe winds, and so 

 have not deep running roots to resist the heaviest blasts. If, 

 then, we cut away the other trees and the undergrowth, we 

 shall almost certainly loose our trees. I thin out trees and 

 undergrowth very sparingly, and have lost very few. Others 

 pasture their sugar-lot. This should be done with caution. I 

 have turned sheep into my lot, but they are watched very care- 

 fully, for it is my aim to protect the young Maples. And if the 

 old trees, which have now been tapped annually for moi'e 

 than fifty years, should show signs of decline (they do not as 

 yet), I shall have a vigorous young grove to tap instead of the 

 old one. 



No rule can be given as to date of tapping. For the past 

 few years about the 20th of March has been a good time to 

 begin in this latitude. The tendency is to tap too early. The 

 evfi of this is that the cut dries up, and when the season does 

 fully open, it is not in condition to yield the best returns. 



In early times we used to cut an oval in the tree with an axe. 

 This was often two by four inches in diameter. A terrible 

 wound, yet some of my best trees of to-day were tapped in 

 this way for years, and stand as monuments of Nature's re- 

 cuperative power. We next used a two-inch augur, cutting 

 about half an inch deep, and, as before, cutting a second gash 

 just below for a spout. This, though an improvement, was 

 still a cruel practice. The wonder is that the trees stood it as 

 they did. 



We now use a half-inch curved-lip bit, which cuts a very 

 smooth hole. We bore from one and a half inches to two 

 inches in depth. While science seems to have demonstrated 

 that depth, not size of hole, measures the amount of sap, yet 

 experience in my bush proves that a two-inch hole gives more 

 sap than a half-inch cut, though not enough more to warrant 

 the larger wound. 



If we desire to secure the very finest article, we must exer- 

 cise great care and absolute neatness. The best spout is a 

 close-fitting metalic one, which also holds the bucket. The 

 buckets should be of tin, should " nest " or have flaring sides, 

 and should hold not less than fourteen quarts. The bucket 

 has a small hole through the side close to the top, by which it 

 hangs to the spout. The past year I have used two spouts to 

 a bucket, one passing Just over the rim. Hereafter I shall 

 use two spouts to all but my smallest trees. I use an incii 

 pine cover, one foot square, to each bucket. It is painted red 

 on one side and white on the other. The cover keeps out all 

 filth, rain and snow from the sap, and is a very great aid in 

 gathering. As we turn the covers each time we can see for 

 rods by the color if we have gathered the sap from any bucket. 



Sap contains cane-sugar, which varies in amount with the 

 tree. I think the average is about one pound to four gallons 

 of sap. The best syrup — that which has sufficient consistency 

 to please the palate, and yet is not so thick as to crystalize in 

 the cans — weighs eleven pounds to the gallon when hot. We 

 aim to have all our syrup of this exact weight. It takes about 

 thirty-five gallons of sap to make one gallon of such syrup. 

 To make the finest sugar or syrup requires great neatness and 

 dispatch. Any dirt aflects the color, and possibly the flavor, 

 and therefore the sap is strained through cloth at least thi-ee 

 times. Delay in reducing sap to syrup or sugar affects both 

 color and flavor. I suppose that ozone colors the product, just 



as it colors a piece of cut-apple. Thus long exposure is to be 

 avoided. Again, delay, especially if the weather is warm, and 

 if the greatest neatness has not been observed, induces fer- 

 mentation, which changes tlie cane-sugar to grape-sugar. This 

 injures both color and flavor decidedly. Could all sap be 

 taken just as it oozes from the tree, and converted quickly 

 into syrup or sugar then, we would always have a product 

 nearly water-white and of the highest flavor. In the syrup 

 there is a variable amount of malate of lime. Often this is 

 almost absent. Sometimes we get a pint in reducing six or 

 seven gallons of syrup. This lime malate often incrusts the 

 bottom of the evaporator, and gives much trouble. I use an 

 evaporator so arranged that the Ijack-pans (all are connected 

 by siphons) can be changed each day, and there is no trouble 

 from these incrustations. In other evaporators, if the bottom 

 of the pan at the very back end be occasionally scraped with a 

 pine paddle the lime is said not to troifljle- When the syrup 

 is strained through factory-cloth, much of the lime is removed. 

 The syrup then stands for half an hour, when the lime so set- 

 tles that but litfle is left in the liquid, if carefully turned off. 

 This is at once sealed, while hot, in air-tight cans. 



We have a very neat house in which to boil the sap. Even 

 the wood house is separate from the boiling room so as to 

 save or prevent dust. The "Champion" evaporator reduces 

 very fast. Mine is twelve feet by four, and will manage the 

 sap for 800 trees. It consists of four separate pans connected 

 by siphons. We run off' the syrup once every three hours, 

 about seven gallons at a time, and this rapid work helps to 

 make a very fine article. 



Trees vaiy much in the amount of sap they yield. Sound, 

 vigorous, large, and heavy-topped trees are the best. Seasons 

 differ exceedingly. What we need for sap is a cold night, 

 freezing the ground, followed by a warm, still day. The season 

 that has many such days will be a good one. Sap from 

 different trees varies in sweetness. Sap late in the season 

 is usually sweeter than that which runs earlier. Sap which 

 runs rather slow is richer than when it runs very fast. 

 Trees tapped on the south-west side run fastest early in the 

 season ; those on the north-east excel later. The sap is all 

 equally good till the buds start, when the syrup will be rank 

 both in taste and odor. The old idea that the first run was 

 best came from the fact that the buckets then were all neat 

 and clean. It is important to wash out the buckets often with 

 warm water, so as to prevent any possible fermentation. 



Agricultural College, Mich. A. y. Cook. 



Notes Upon Some North American Trees. — VIII. 



129. Crat^gus tohentosa, L. — This is one of the best 

 marked and least variable of the North American Thorns. 

 It may be readily distinguished by its large, ovate-elliptical 

 leaves three to four inches long, narrowed at the base into 

 a margined petiole, doubly serrate and sometimes incisely 

 cut towards the apex, glabrous, dark green and lustrous on 

 the upper, paler and covered with soft pubescence on the 

 lower surface ; by the spreading, loose, pubescent corymbs 

 of rather small flowers and by the small oval fruit, rarely 

 more than a third of an inch long and always upright. It 

 may be distinguished from all the varieties of C. coccinea 

 by the absence of glands, and by the pale gray bark of the 

 branches, which are generally unarmed. The thorns, when 

 they do occur, are short and stout and of the same color as 

 the branches. This species, with which a variety of C. 

 coccinea is often confounded, does not occur in New En- 

 gland, or, so far as I know, anywhere east of the Appa- 

 lachian Mountains ; it is common in western New York, 

 extends through southern Michigan to Missouri, where it is 

 very common, and as far south as east Tennessee and 

 Georgia. It is the latest of all our Crataegus to flower, with 

 the exception of C cordaia ; and the flowers emit an exceed- 

 ingly disagreeable odor. This species is admirably figured 

 in tlie "Arboretum Segrezianum," /. 22, under C. leucocepha- 

 lus ; and there is a doubtful figure in the " Botanical Regis- 

 ter," xxii., 1877, under C. pyrifolia. But as these works are 

 not very accessible, Mr. Faxon has drawn the figure, which 

 appears on page 425 of this issue, which may serve to call 

 the attention of botanists to this plant. I shall be glad of in- 

 hnniiation of its geographical range, especially in Pennsj'l- 

 vania and in the states west of the Alleghany ^Mountains 

 and south of the Ohio River. The specimen in the Lin- 

 na^um herbarium fixes the identity of this species and 



