320 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



trees into the open tubs and buckets. People acquired a taste for this compound, just 

 as they learned to relish other unwholesome articles of food. On the other hand, the 

 efforts to produce an absolutely pure article has resulted in a whitish, hard, flinty cake 

 in which there is little left of the maple taste. 



The refining process may be carried too far. A pure article that is merely sweet 

 will not satisfy the consumer. Cane sugar is equally sweet and costs only half as 

 much. The extra price for maple sugar is paid in order to obtain the delicious flavor 

 peculiar to that product. The work of refining should cease as soon as the impurities 

 are eliminated, in order to retain as far as possible the distinct taste of the maple. 



A well managed sugar bush will yield twelve per cent, on the investment. The 

 farmers, who include nearly all our sugar makers, do the work at slight expense, and 

 do it at a season of the year when they have little else to do. Maple groves are no 

 longer cut down for fuel or to clear the land, but are carefully preserved and 

 cultivated. The growth of the young trees and saplings is fostered in order to provide 

 for the future and obtain a maximum production. 



While it is conceded that a maple tree in an open field will yield more sugar than 

 one in the forest, it does not follow that a grove, by thinning and trimming extensively, 

 can be made to produce a corresponding quantity. The trees in a grove have sprouted, 

 grown, and thrived under conditions widely different from those surrounding their 

 neighbors in the field. They have been nurtured by the thick deposit of forest humus 

 and decaying leaves, which has also induced a root-growth near the surface where 

 greater moisture and sustenance are found. The roots of the field-maple avoid the 

 sun-dried surfaces, and strike deep down in search of the moisture in the lower strata. 



Now, if a maple grove is thinned out and underbrushed too much, the sun dries the 

 soil and the grasses soon appear; the surface becomes dry and hard; the trees fail or 

 die on account of these changed conditions, and from a lack of moisture about their 

 roots. There should be a proper amount of pruning for the removal of dead trees or 

 limbs, and some thinning, necessary in fostering the young growth; but the under- 

 brush should be left to shade the soil, to prevent evaporation, and to furnish the annual 

 mulch of fallen and decaying leaves. It should be remembered that the maple is 

 pre-eminently a shade-enduring species, and that it is unnecessary to cut down trees 

 merely to admit light. Some thinning of the young growth may be advisable 

 wherever it is necessary to relieve the selected saplings from crowded or suppressed 

 conditions; and it is well to cut out the evergreens if there are many of them. 



Some of our sugar makers use not only the most improved apparatus and utensils, 

 but erect neat, comfortable houses in which to boil the sap and manufacture their 

 product. In many places the open shed has given way to a neat, well-designed sugar 

 house, built with reference to convenience, cleanliness and economy. 



