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Cornell Junior Extension Bulletin 26 



45. SUGAR MAPLE 



Hard Maple 



(Acer saccharum Marshall) 



Sugar maple is a magnificent forest tree everywhere abundant in the 

 State outside of Long Island. If there were state trees as there are 

 state flowers, the sugar maple would have no competitors in New York. 



SUGAR MAPLE 



Leaf, one-third natural size ; fruit 

 and twig', one-half natural size 



Besides providing beautiful borders to many miles of highway, and 

 thousands of gallons of maple sirup from the many hundreds of sugar 

 bushes in all parts of the State, it yields a wood of high grade. It is 

 hard, strong, close-grained, and tough, with a fine, satiny surface, and is 

 in great demand for flooring, interior finish, furniture, shoe lasts, rollers, 

 and as a fuel wood of the best quality. 



Bark — on young trees dark gray in color, close, smooth, and firm, be- 

 coming furrowed into long irregular plates lifting along one edge. 



Twigs — slender, shining, the color of maple sugar. 



Winter buds — very narrow, sharp-pointed, brown in color, the ter- 

 minal bud much larger than the laterals. 



Leaves — simple, opposite, from 3 to 5 inches long and fully as wide, 

 from 3 to 5 shallow lobes with wide-spaced coarse teeth, dark green in 

 color above, paler below ; the clefts are rounded at the base. 



Fruit — maple keys, in short clusters, ripening in September. Seeds — 

 join each other in a straight line. Wings — turn down almost at right 

 angles. 



