49 BULLETIN 466, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Maple honey is the name often given to a light-colored maple 
sirup which has been boiled to a density slightly heavier than that 
of sap sirup, or similar to that of strained honey. The sirup could 
hardly be an early run, but should be one in which there has been 
some inversion of the sucrose, for otherwise the product will soon 
crystallize. As this substance has no connection with bees and is 
never stored in combs, the fitness of its name may be questioned. 
Maple wax is prepared by boiling sap sirup to a density nearly 
equal to that of hard sugar, but without stirring, and then pouring 
the product over snow or ice to secure an immediate cooling, thereby 
preventing crystallization of the sugar. This can be made only in 
small quantities and does not keep its waxy condition for any length 
of time. 
As in the case of maple sugar, chemical examination of these 
products should be carried on by concentrating them in solution to a 
sirup with a density of 65, calculating the analytical results so ob- 
tained to the moisture-free basis, and determining the original ~ 
moisture content. 
CONCLUSIONS. 
ANALYTICAL FIGURES OF PURE MAPLE PRODUCTS. 
Moisture-—Maple sirup should have a density equivalent to at 
least 65 per cent dry substance or, in other words, it should weigh 
11 pounds to the gallon. A thinner product does not keep, and a 
heavier one shows more or less crystallization, depending on the 
quality of the sap and on manufacturing conditions. Maple sugar 
with a water content much over 5 per cent isrunny and drains easily. 
In tub sugar, the moisture content may run as high as 10 to 12 per 
cent, but beyond this the sugar becomes mushy. 
Sugars.—Sucrose normally constitutes about 95 per cent of the 
dry substance of the maple product, and, together with about 3 per 
cent of reducing sugars, forms the total sugar content. In some 
samples sucrose constituted about 97.5 per cent of the product. In 
normal sirup, or sirup in which no acid fermentation has taken place, 
the sum of the sucrose and the reducing sugars calculated to sucrose 
by the factor 0.95 will give a figure ranging very close to 97.5 per 
cent of the dry substance. 
Ash.—The total ash is an important figure in the analysis of a 
maple product. The average percentage in 481 samples of maple 
sap sirup was found to be 1 per cent, with extremes of 1.68 and 0.68. 
In the 363 samples of maple sugars, the average was 0.98 per cent, 
with extremes of 1.70 and 0.76 per cent, all figured to a dry basis. 
Examining the results on these samples critically, we find that out of 
the 844 samples 10 have an ash content of 0.77 per cent or lower 
(Table X XIX). 
