432 
ZTAc RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
Miirch IG, 1918 
“U. S. Protected” 
From Dawn to Dark 
and know that your feet will be warm, dry 
and comfortable, however wet and cold 
the weather, or rough the path. Greater 
comfort would alone be sufficient induce¬ 
ment to the outdoor worker to wear 
U. S. Rubber 
Footwear 
Longer service which this heavy service, double 
duty rubber footwear assures you makes the 
wearing a money-saving proposition. 
Comfort and economy go hand in hand in ‘^U.S. 
Protection” and every pair of the many “U.S.” 
styles bears the U. S. Seal—the trade mark of the 
largest rubber manufacturerin the world—placed 
there for your protection. Look for it. 
For sale everywhere. Your 
dealer has the style you need, 
or can get it for you. 
United States Rubber Company 
New York 
Tapping Maple Trees 
T hiivc a luiiiilxM' of youiift xiigar trees 
that have never beeu tapped, and 1 am 
i anxious to know what size of tree it is 
safe to tap. AVould a tree eight inches in 
I diameter or as .small as .six inches ho iu- 
j .ill red h.Y tapping V I. C. 
I (lormania, \V. Va. 
Tapping never injures a tree of any 
size, and trees of six or eight indies in 
diameter are very often utilized for mak¬ 
ing inaide sugar. There is something of 
a correlation hetwim the size of a tree 
and the amount of sap that it will yield, 
! so it is largely a local jirohlem as to 
whether or not such trees will yield 
enough sap to make it worth while to tap 
them as a commercial venture. But the 
syrup and sugar will he of the very finest 
(piality. Sap is forced from the maple 
tree by an internal luessiire whicli is de¬ 
veloped h.v gases which are generated dur¬ 
ing the jirocess of digestion of tlii' elabo¬ 
rated saj), and, before a trci- c.an lose 
enough sap in this manner, the ]iressiire 
will he relieved, and the sap will ce.ase to 
flow. Moreover, a tree prodiicing three 
lionnds of sugar will yield, on an avei-age, 
10(1 iionnds of sap, and it will still have 
betwei'ii .S.OOO and 4,000 jxinuds reniaiu- 
ing in its body. So that a tree yields to 
the sugar-maker only about three-tenths 
of OIK' p(*r cent of its sap. This is epniv- 
alent to no more than a cat's scratch on a 
man’s hand, and no in.iui-ions effects can 
result. 
V.'esi '\'irginia has never tlgnred extou- 
si\cly as a producer of maple syrui). Yet 
in 1010, wiiich is the latest date that .sta- 
' tistics are available, there A\ere tapped 
I within the State 07.274 maple trees, from 
which, including the syrup lapiivalent, 
0S0,4()8 jionnds of maple sugar, valued at 
•'i'4(i.5()0, wore made. ^I'his is ciinivalent 
to a very small fraction less than 12 cents 
a iiouiid, Avhile the average value of that 
I in the 19 States in which maple sugar 
was made commercially, was but 10 cents 
a pound. The avei-agc yield per tree xvas 
a fraction over four iiound.s. while the 
avi'ragc yield jier tree throughout the 
Tnited States was but 2^ imnnds. 'I’he.se 
•figures indicate tliat it will stand the 
people of West l'’irginia w'ell in hand to 
tap every majile tree within the borders 
of the State, and get into the mnjile sugar 
business. c. o. o. 
Rock Candv in Maple Syrup 
I’oda.v T oj^ened .a can of maple syrup 
obtained from a New York State farm 
and found the bottom full of sugar crys¬ 
tals resembling rook candy. What was 
this? Does the maple sap contain all 
the sugar necessar.v to produce syrup and 
maple sugar, or is regular cane sugar 
; legitimately added to these products? Is 
j the thin and almost water color syruj) 
1 (which usually has a most excellent 
flavor) and the darker, heavier kind, of 
e<|iial pureness, the dilTerenee being caused 
b.v “boiling down’’? M, o. T. 
Dai-ieu, Conn. 
’I’he sap of the maple tree contains all 
the sugar that is ever found in pure maple 
syrup or sugar. The addition of other 
sugar is illegal, and tlie iier.son ofi’eriug 
such mi.xed sugar for sale, as maple sugar, 
boeonies liable to iirosecution under the 
pure food laws. Fines and impfisoiiment 
are the penalties if luoveii. 
]\Iaple sap, as it comes from the tree, i.s 
identical in its aiipcaraiice with the pur- 
(‘st of water. Tt weighs within a fraction 
of eight Jionnds to the gallon, boils at a 
temjiciarurc of 212 degrees, and averages 
to contain three jicr cent of sugar. When 
boiled the. water is driven oil’, and that re¬ 
maining in the ovaiiorntor gradually lie- 
comes darker, heavier, sweeter, moi'e de¬ 
licious and more dense, and. with its in¬ 
creasing density its boiling jioiut is raised. 
Fvaiioration is continued until the boil¬ 
ing jioint reaches 219 degrees. At thi.s 
jioint the. jiroduct weighs 11 iiouuds to the 
gallon and consists of 8,7 jier cent water 
and G5 per cent sugar, which is equivalent 
to 7.15 jiounds of moisture-free sugar. It 
thus fulfils the conditions imjiosed by the 
jiure food laws. If lighter iu weight its 
sugar content is less, and the product is 
classed as adulterated, and the seller of 
thin syrup also becomes liable to jirosecu- 
tion. A high-grade maple syrup should 
i he tran.sluceut and of a light amber color, 
i But a dark color is not an indication of 
j any adulteration. It merely signifies that 
less care has been taken iu it.s manxifac- 
ture. 
If.the evaporation is continued until 
the boiling point reaches 225 degrees, 
particles of sugar will “grain," and form 
a soft nmjilc sugar, increasing iu liard- 
uess !is its boiling jioint increases. If 
evajxiratiou is stojijied betwt'en the de¬ 
grees of 219 ami 22.5, jiartiole.s of sugar 
will crystallize during long storage, and 
form a pure rock candy, which will he 
deiKisited on the bottom and sides of the 
contaiio-rs. This i.s the deposit which 
the inquirer has found, and, if she will 
melt the crystals and add them to the 
remaining syrup,’ the whole will return to 
its original condition. She need have 
no feai-s of having been imjiosed upon, 
for, had sugar been added to the syrup, 
the crystals would not have formed. 
Neither will they form in a very low 
grade of majde syrup. The farmer has 
simjily defrauded himself and given her a 
syruji mucli rieher in sugar than the es¬ 
tablished standard requires. The thin, 
watery syrup to which reference is made 
is of the same jiurity as the dense jiro¬ 
duct, except that its sugar content is less, 
and its water content i.s greater, c. 0. o. 
Homemade Maple Syrup 
Having road several articles on how 
to make maple syruji. 1 will tell how T 
did. I' irst, I went to a tinshoj) and had 
a saj) pan m.ade, ‘22 x .Ti iuclu's, that will 
cover the toji of our six-hole range. The 
jian is made of galvanized steel, is five 
inches deeji, and cost .81.00. T went to 
a bakery :ind got 100 one-gallon cans, 
such a.s pic material come in. 'riiey cost 
me nothing. I .saved the tojis cut out 
for making covers to our 100 saji buckets. 
I bought, UK) sap spouts with hooks, 
jiunched holes near the toj) of the sap 
buckets so as to hang them in the sap 
spout hooks. 
We jiiit the six-hole range in the wood¬ 
shed, <Ieancd out the reservoir for heat¬ 
ing sap and juit two large granite pans 
iu the oven for the same jiurjiose. Then 
as the sap boilixl down in the jian on 
toji of the stove we juit more in from 
reservoir and jians ready heated. We diji 
the nearly “done” syruji from the boiling 
Jian and finish it off in a jiorcelain jire- 
serving kettle in the house. Thus our 
outfit for 100 trees cost only .84..85, and 
can be used for years. Anybody can make 
majile syruji, and every majile tree on 
the farm or in the village street should 
be tajiped. wm. t. i.angi.ky. 
Michigan. 
The Castor Oil Bean 
An inquiry was recently made about 
the castor oil bean, and the contract now- 
being oflered by the 11. S. OoveriimenI 
for these beans. The reason for this i.s 
that this bean furuisbos the only sat's- 
fiictory lubricant for the engines of iiii- 
shijis, and as the (Inited Stales oxjieels 
soon to have a large fleet of the.se airshijis 
the Government is making ofl’orts to se¬ 
cure as large a quantity as jiossihle of 
this oil. I'lio Government i.s offering 
.$.’!..50 jx-r bushel fur these beans, jtiid snh- 
contractors are jiaying $8 per bushel for 
them. 5’he Government furnishes tlie 
seed and charges for it. 
Tliese beans are grown to a limited ex¬ 
tent in Dklahonia and Missouri, but as 
they arc killed liy the frost each Fall it 
is doubtful whether then’ is any more 
jirofit in them thai in wheat or other 
farm crojis. As you jiroeecd South the 
longer the .season gets ami the greater the 
yield becomes. In Southern I'lnrida, 
where there is little if any frost, these 
beans become jicrennials, liranching like 
an apjile tree and growing large us jilum 
trees, and yield a continuous croji the 
year round. I’lie United States has con¬ 
tracted for many thousand acres on both 
the east and west coast of Soiitlieni 
Florida. They are an easy ei-oji to grow, 
as they soon .shaile the ground with their 
branches .md large leaves, and then t-ike 
care of themselves. Here in Dade (’o., 
Fla., they grow wild vigorously iu waste 
ground, and bear continuously for three 
to four years. They are much more 
prolitalile where there is little or no frost 
than in cold regions, where they are cut 
down by frost soon after they commence 
to hear. o. p. 
