Every Step 
From 
H OW OBTAINED.—Maple syrup is a product 
of the concentration of the sap of the maple 
tree, and maple sugar in its various forms differs 
from maple syrup only in manipulation and in the 
fact that the concentration is carried to such a de¬ 
gree that the product crystallizes and forms a solid 
mass when cool. This sap is obtained by wounding 
the tree during its dormant period. This operation 
is termed “tapping.” Originally it was performed 
by cutting a wide, deep notch in the side of the tree, 
using an ax for the purpose. Obviously this prac¬ 
tice was ruinous to the trees, and so, about one hun¬ 
dred years ago, the auger began to displace the ax 
in Maple Sug,ar Making, 
the Sap to the Finished Product 
Part I. 
extends from Maine westerly to the timber line bor¬ 
dering upon the Great Plains, and southerly from 
Labrador to Florida, and even to Missouri. It is 
the predominating tree in all that tract of territory 
drained by the St. Lawrence River and its tribu¬ 
taries, and the center of its distribution, as located 
b.\ botanists, is along the northern border of Ver¬ 
mont. and an adjacent area in the Province of Que¬ 
bec. Here it flourishes as in no other part of its 
range, and this is one reason why this region stands 
pre-eminent as a maple-sugar producing region. 
YIELDS OF MAPLE SUGAR.—The estimate has 
been made that an average of G.000 maple trees were 
in small groves scattered in the fields and pastures 
throughout the maple sugar producing area. Neither 
does it include the long rows of maple trees that 
line many of the roadsides, nor those that furnish 
shade for the many lawns and parks. From their 
isolation they cannot be profitably utilized by the 
maple sugar makers, but they are capable of yield¬ 
ing many tons of maple sugar in the aggregate, and 
they furnish an important source of revenue to the 
boy or girl who cares to work them. 
SOME YOUNG SUGAR-MAKERS.—In proof of 
this statement, it may be well to cite the instance 
t.f two little girls who made 40 lbs. of maple sugar 
as an implement for tapping the maple tree. At first 
a hole two inches in diameter was bored to a depth 
ot six or eight inches. This involved too much labor, 
and gradually implements of a smaller size were 
used, and the holes were bored to a less depth, until 
the present practice is to use a bit not exceeding 
half an inch in diameter, and to bore to a depth not 
to exceed two inches. Practically as much sap is 
yielded from a tap-hole of this size as from a great 
notch chopped in the side of the tree. 
A SUGAR-BEARING FAMILY.—Botanists recog¬ 
nize something like one hundred species of maple 
trees as being indigenous to some part or other of 
the world, and it is a characteristic of every species 
to yield, under favorable conditions, this sugar-bear¬ 
ing sap. But of all this number there are but six 
siHKues that yield it in sufficient quantity, of a suf¬ 
ficient purity and sugar content, and are closely 
enough associated in sufficient numbers and over a 
sufficient area to allow the profitable manufacture of 
maple sugar upon anything like an extensive com¬ 
mercial scale, although there are many others from 
which it is often made experimentally, or as an inter¬ 
esting novelty. Of these six species, the rock maple, 
often called the sugar maple, and the hard maple, 
technically known as Acer saccliarum, stand so pre¬ 
eminently above all others in all of these respects 
that probably 5)5 per cent of all the maple syrup and 
maple sugar produced originate in this species. This 
tree is found only in North America, but its range 
sacrificed in the clearing of every farm in the State 
of New York and fitting it for agricultural purposes, 
and also that were all those trees now standing in 
their pristine vigor and size their yield of sugar 
would be sufficient to supply the whole of the United 
States with its annual ration of sugar under the 
allotment made by the Food Conservation Commis¬ 
sion. Under existing conditions, however, this 
State’s total production of maple sugar, including 
the sugar equivalent of that marketed as maple 
syrup, is, in round numbers, but 11,000.000 pounds, 
or less than one and one-half ounces per capita. 
According to the last census the total production of 
maple sugar in the United States, including the 
syrup, was but 47.000,000 pounds. Of this amount 
the five States of New York, Vermont, Ohio. Penn¬ 
sylvania and Michigan, and in the order named, pro¬ 
duced 87 per cent, the remaining 13 per cent being 
distributed in various proportions among the 14 other 
maple sugar producing States of which the census 
took notice. The total output of Canada is but 30,- 
000,000 pounds. Little need of fear of an over¬ 
production. 
NUMBER OF PRODUCING TREES.—The total 
number of trees tapped in the United States is within 
a few thousand of 19,000,000. But from actual 
counts in some of the States, and conservative esti¬ 
mates in others, it is known that this number might 
easily be doubled; and this estimate does not include 
the million or more maple trees that are to be found 
from a couple of rows of maple trees that lined the 
roadside, collecting the sap in lard pails, fruit cans, 
tin pans and various other disused receptacles and 
boiling it upon an old cook stove set up in the back 
yard for their use. Also of the two 12-year-old boys 
who made 300 lbs. of maple sugar from a grove of 
maple trees located in a back pasture, using an old- 
style equipment that had been discarded many years 
previously by a more up-to-date sugar-maker, and 
boiling the sap upon a stone arch which they them¬ 
selves built of stones picked up in the field, and util¬ 
izing wood that was decaying upon the ground. Also 
of the two boys who made 150 lbs. of maple sugar 
from a grove of maple trees located in an almost in¬ 
accessible gully. They had nothing in the way of 
an equipment with which to work, and no money 
with which to buy it. But they fitted wooden plugs 
to the tap-holes, bored holes through them and used 
them for spouts. They caught the sap in any kind 
of receptacle that they could get, even in some in¬ 
stances hewing out wooden troughs after the fashion 
of a century and a half ago. and they boiled the sap 
in three old iron kettles which they scoured until 
they were bright, and hung them upon poles over the 
flies. Also of the housewife who made four gallons 
of maple syrup from the maple trees in and around 
her backyard, catching the sap in various kitchen 
utensils not otherwise iu use and boiling if upon the 
kitchen stove. And, lastly, of the 10-year-old boy 
who made 55 gallons of maple syrup from a grove 
