I 
344 
if maple trees in a back lot. sold the syrup for 82 a 
gallon and bought a Liberty bond. These are but 
t few of the similar instances which might be cited, 
but their numbers should be enumerated by the tens 
of thousands, instead of the paltry scores. And 
new to get to the original starting point. 
AN UNEXPLAINED CHARACTERISTIC.—Just 
why the maple tree should yield this sugar-bearing 
sap is a question to which science can give a no more 
lefinite answer than it can tell why one class of trees 
bears pears and another class bears peaches. It is 
in unexplained characteristic of the tree. But it 
vill yield sap only under certain atmospheric c-on- 
litions, and these conditions call for bright, clear 
lays, during which the temperature rises to 60 de¬ 
grees or more, followed by equally clear nights, with 
i drop in the mercury to several degrees below the 
freezing point. Because these atmospheric conditions 
prevail for any length of time only during the period 
if transition from Winter into Summer is why the 
maple sugar making period is during the months 
>f March or April. Because this period is longer in 
hat region where is located the point of distribution 
of the maple tree, and which point is coincident with 
the greatest development of that tree, is another 
reason why Northern Vermont stands at the head of 
lie maple sugar producing regions of the United 
States. Here, taking one year with another, and 
•omparing one orchard with another, the yield of 
maple sugar per tree is roughly estimated at 3 lbs. 
of maple sugar for every solid cord of wood com 
tained in the body of the tree. There are, however, 
wide variations in both directions, and if the yield 
of the present day does not equal that of half a cen¬ 
tury ago, it is owing to the fact that the present 
generation in its mad scramble for the almighty 
dollar has killed the bird that laid the golden egg 
just by cutting the giants of the forest 
FORMATION OF SUGAR.—But the factors which 
govern the yield of individual trees are various and 
complex. It is known that, the sugar is formed in 
the leaves during the previous Summer and stored 
•n the body of the tree. Therefore, other things be¬ 
ing equal, the greater the leaf area, compared with 
the size of the trunk, the sweeter will be the sap. 
Conversely, the greater the size of the trunk, com¬ 
pared with the leaf area, the less will be the sugar 
content of the sap. So wide is this variation that 
the sugar content of sap from different trees ranges 
Tom scarcely a trace to a maximum of 10 per cent, 
with an average throughout the United States of 
closely around three per cent. Regardless of its 
-dze. the amount of sap that a tree can store is de¬ 
pendent upon the amount of moisture supplied to 
its roots. This, in turn, is dependent upon the na¬ 
ture of the soil and, to a less extent, upon the rain- 
tall of the previous Summer. Size in comparison 
with leaf area also has some influence. Thus the 
amount of sap stored in a maple tree varies from a 
maximum of more than the kiln-dried weight cf the 
wood down to a quantity so small that none will 
low. For instance, witness the small amount that 
can be drained from a street tree located in a nar¬ 
row parking, bounded upon one side by an asphalt 
sidewalk, and upon the other by a concrete roadway, 
and with gutters and sewers to remove every drop of 
rain as fast as it falls. But, regardless of all other 
conditions, the amount of sugar that a maple tree 
will yield depends wholly upon the atmospheric 
conditions already described. This varies from a 
maximum recorded yield of 42 lbs. down to a neg¬ 
ligible quantity, with an average at the present time 
of a trifle under 3 lbs. per tree. c. o. okmsbee. 
Goats and Sheep to Clean Bush 
I have a stump lot of about 12 acres from which we 
have intended to pull the stumps and make it a culti¬ 
vated field, but help is so scarce with us that we are 
forced to abandon this plan. The land was covered with 
^oft maple and elm trees mainly, and they were cut 
three years ago. The stumps are suckering up again, 
dso much brush starting to grow on the land. Would 
it not be a good plan to fence and pasture this plot with 
goats? I understand they will keep all kinds of brush 
and weeds down. The land is nearly flat, but not 
marshy. Where can goats be bought? What number 
should we use on this amount of land to subdue it as 
quickly as possible, and what would they cost at pres- 
nt? I presume any breed that would eat the brush 
would answer the purpose, regardless, of sex or age. 
What sort of a fence would be right to inclose them? 
Ontario Co., N. Y. n. B. K. 
T HIS question will have to go to people who have 
tried this plan fairly. We know some of out- 
readers have had experience, and they will give good 
advice. We think a flock of active sheep would on 
he whole be better than goats for such work. The 
goats might eat more of the brush, and be in less 
danger from dogs, but they would cost considerably 
more and would be hard to obtain. Good sheep may 
not be so good at browsing, but you can buy them 
without trouble, and they will give fair returns in 
wool and meat, beside clearing up the field. They 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
will need more care and feed than the goats, and the 
dogs may trouble them, but considering everything 
we should take a chance with the sheep. It is a 
good question, and we would like a good discussion. 
A Reader in the Frozen North 
Enclosed find a check for five dollars. Please ex¬ 
tend my subscription. Tiie Rural New-Yorker is 
one of the papers that a person has to read after 
once starting to read it. I am not. a farmer, nor 
have I anything to do with the farm, yet I find a 
An Alaskan Reader of The R. N.-Y. Fig. 76. 
good deal of information that is of value even for a 
preacher in faraway Alaska. Most likely I am your 
northernmost reader. Continue your good work. 
Unalakleet, Alaska. lars a. almquist. 
R N.-Y.—The Rev. Mr. Almquist is superintendent 
of the mission at Unalakleet, which place lies 
in latitude 64° north. The picture shows our good 
friend comfortably seated in his house—reading The 
R. N.-Y'. This photograph was a time exposure of 
five minutes. In that far northern country there is 
not much sunlight during the Winter. Who ever 
took the picture caught Mr. Almquist in a somewhat 
unusual pose and this made his feet seem a little 
out of proportion. However, when great feet go with 
a great head, who cares for the size? We think Mr. 
Almquist is our most northernmost reader. If anyone 
lives above latitude 64° we would like to hear from 
him. At the other end of the earth we have readers 
in Patagonia and quite a number in South Africa. 
There are a few readers in New Zealand as far as 
45° degrees south. We also go into practically every 
civilized country on earth, and some of our most en¬ 
thusiastic friends live in these faraway countries. 
Insanity on the Farm 
T HE present Health Commissioner of New York 
City, Dr. Royal S. Copeland, in making his 
statement that insanity certainly has always been 
more common among the hard-working housewives 
of the rural districts than among the dwellers of 
the city, should probably be adjudged guilty only of 
the loose talk in which so many men holding prom¬ 
inent positions indulge. Divested of the wings which 
the official title of their author will give these words, 
I)r. Copeland's statment would not go far; as it is, 
however, it is probably worth while to contradict it 
Ilandu Garden Cultivator. Fig. 77. (See page 352) 
in the interests of the peace of mind of some who 
may really fear what city people term the monotony 
and loneliness of farm life. 
As real authority upon the distribution of cases of 
mental troubles, the word of Dr. II. M. Pollock, sta¬ 
tistician of the New York State Hospital Commission, 
will carry weight. From a letter which lies before 
me. I quote the following: “We have never been 
able to compute the rate of the incidence of insanity 
in this group (farmers’ wives), as the Federal cen¬ 
sus of occupations does not give the number of farm- 
February 21, 1920 
ers’ wives in the general population. The facts we 
have collected, however, indicate that there is a very 
low rate of insanity among farmers’ wives, although 
I know that current opinion is otherwise. We stud¬ 
ied the first admissions of the year 1912 and found 
that, out of a total of 5.742 cases, comprising 2.010 
males and 2,732 females, only 205 males and 122 fe¬ 
males were committed from rural districts proper; 
that is, rural districts excluding villages. These fig¬ 
ures would indicate that there is a very much lower 
rate of insanity among farmers’ wives than among 
farmers, and the rate among farmers is not high 
compared with the average rate for the State.” 
Many other like statements from authoritative 
sources might be quoted, but they are not needed. 
Perhaps, however, my own observations may be of 
slight interest in this connection. As health officer of 
a rural township, it has been my duty for some years 
to look after the insane from farm homes. Of these 
under my care in the past five years, I find 10 have 
been men and two women. One of these women was 
the daughter of a farmer and mentally deficient from 
childhood; the other was an unmarried woman who 
had spent her life upon the farm that was first hex- 
father’s, then her own. 
I can hardly conceive of a harder blow to any fam¬ 
ily than to find that one of its members has lost his 
mental balance, and I cannot help but sympathize 
with the efforts which are frequently, though usually 
mistakenly, made to hide the sufferei-’s misfortune 
from others. In not a few cases have I seen helpless 
women suffer almost inconceivable agony from pro¬ 
longed anxiety and even from fear that the one who 
should be the protector might become, in a fit of ii*- 
responsible angei-, the household destroyer. While 
the farm home is probably less often visited by this 
most dreaded of calamities than is the home in town, 
it is quite true that its comparative isolation often 
makes impossible the consolation which the latter 
affords in nearness to fi-iends and neighbors. 
Mental disorders would lose some of the terrors 
which they inspire, however, if it were more gen¬ 
erally understood that they are as much diseases as 
are the disorders of the body with which we are 
more familiar. Like diseases of the body, too, they 
are amenable to treatment, and a very large number 
of cases either recover entirely or become so much 
improved as to permit the sufferer to maintain his 
ordinary relations with society. In the words of Di\ 
C. W. Pilgrim, chairman of the State Hospital Com¬ 
mission. “It (insanity) is just as amenable to ti*eat~ 
ment as any other disease. Nearly 25 per cent of all 
who are admitted to the hospitals of the State are 
cured. Nearly as many more are i-eturned to their 
homes in a condition to live in the outside world with¬ 
out violating the ordinary rules of conduct, and more 
than 70 per cent of those who are compelled to spend 
their lives under institutional care are taught to do 
sonic useful work whereby they become partially self- 
supporting and lead contented lives.” 
In no humane work has society made greater prog¬ 
ress in the last generation than in the cai-e of the in¬ 
sane. Our State hospitals (New York State) are no 
longer looked upon as jails from which there is no 
escape when once an unfortunate is placed within 
them; they are, as their name implies, hospitals for 
the special treatment of a certain class of disox-ders. 
When their patients recover they ai-e returned to 
their homes. When full recovery is impossible, but 
sufficient improvement to warrant returning a pa¬ 
tient to his home surroundings is, he is placed upon 
parole and permitted to resume his normal relations 
with his family and neighbors. 
A further development of State hospital work, full 
of promise when it shall have become sufficiently well 
understood to receive the popular support that it 
must have, is the provision for the admission of vol¬ 
untary patients and the out-patient and free clinic 
departments. Those who fear the oncoming of se¬ 
rious mental trouble which may blight their lives 
are now permitted to enter these hospitals as volun¬ 
tary patients and they are there given the advice and 
treatment which is so often effectual only when re¬ 
ceived in time. Free clinics at points near the State 
hospitals have also been established, but, as yet. in 
insufficient numbers to meet the needs of rural resi¬ 
dents who do not happen to live near a State insti¬ 
tution. Membei-s of the medical staffs of these hos¬ 
pitals attend at these clinics and give needed advice 
and instruction to those threatened with mental 
breakdown. Insanity is not only curable in a very 
large number of cases, but it is preventable in fully 
as many more. With the passing of John Barleycorn 
one of its chief causes will have been done away with 
and. with the extension of the preventive work of the 
State and allied organizations, future generations 
may hope to see the lifting of the cloud which now 
overshadows so many homes. m. b. d. 
