FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 311 



Where the holes do not exceed three-eighths of an inch in diameter they close in 

 two years, and by the third year are covered by the new growth. Some sugar makers- 

 plug the holes with wood or cork ; some paint the' wood in and around the hole at 

 the close of the season to prevent decay. 



The season for sugar making varies with the weather. In Northern New York it 

 begins about March 20 and ends about April 18. It varies greatly with different 

 years according as the spring is early or late. An annual record kept by Mr. 

 Benjamin Davenport, of Lowville, N. Y., extending through a period of twenty-two 

 years, shows a mean duration of twenty-nine days. 



Sugar making commenced one year, in 1834, as early as February 22; and in 

 1836 as late as April 17. In 1834 it ended April 5; but in 1836 it lasted until 

 May 2. The longest run in any year was forty-three days, in 1834; and the shortest 

 was eight days, in 1850. Latitude affects the season, also, the work commencing 

 each year in southern Indiana much earlier than in Canada. 



The best weather for tapping is when there are freezing nights and warm, thawing 

 days. The most successful runs are made when the mercury falls to about 15 degrees 

 Fahrenheit in the night, and rises to about 50 degrees in the day. A " sugar snow " 

 seems to be an ever present condition, and the old fashioned frolic of the young people 

 is still a noticeable feature of the work. Bright, warm, still days with frosty nights 

 induce the largest flow of sap. While a still day is usually considered desirable, there 

 are some who claim that a westerly wind is a favorable condition. But with warm, 

 thawing nights, a south wind, or an approaching storm, the flow of sap is said to 

 become scanty or cease altogether. 



Though the season lasts about four weeks, there are usually only twelve or four- 

 teen good sap days. If the sap gathering is prolonged until the buds swell, the 

 product is bitter and inferior. There is little or no market for " bud sugar." For 

 this reason care should be used in tapping the red maple, as this species buds and 

 flowers the earliest of all our forest trees. 



It is claimed that the alternate freezing and thawing is necessary to sugar making, 

 and that for this reason none is made in warm climates. Still, I remember seeing, in 

 1864, a sugar bush in operation in Shelby County, Tennessee, although no snow fell 

 there that winter, a thin skim of ice on the Duck River occasionally, in the early 

 morning, being the only indication of freezing weather. For similar reasons, it has 

 been stated, little or no sugar is made in extreme Northern forests — New Brunswick, 

 for instance, where the prolonged steady cold in spring precludes the thawing and 

 freezing deemed necessary to a flow of sap. 



Circumscribed thus by climatic conditions, the area of manufacture is much less 

 than that belonging to the. geographical distribution of the tree. 



