PRACTICAL PAPERS—THE MAPLE FAMILY. 
289 
for burning, and then dried as rapidly as sun and air will dry 
it. Such treatment would accomplish a saving of many thou¬ 
sands of dollars in value, which is now annually lost by piling 
green maple in large sticks for a year before use. 
For lumbering and manufacturing purposes some of the 
maples are exceedingly valuable, the veins and curls of some 
of the finer specimens are unexcelled for beauty by any other 
ligneous growth. And when the better taste in inside work 
in buildings, which dispenses with the painted wood, and puts 
in its place our beautiful native woods, oil finished, shall pre¬ 
vail, the many beautiful forms to be found in the maple woods 
will be better appreciated and more used. 
But it is chiefly as a producer of sugar that the maple fam¬ 
ily is known and prized, and the thousands of tons of the 
most delicious sweet which the wild maple forests have given 
up at the call of the frontier settler, entitle the family to the 
respect of all, and to the admiration of the domestic economist. 
AH the maples will yield sugar, but the different species 
vary in the quantity of sap which they will flow, the percent¬ 
age of sugar in the sap, and the quality of the sugar. 
Black Sugar Maple will yield the largest percentage of 
sugar. Cases are known where the yield was as high as 7 per 
cent., though ordinarily it is about 4 per cent. 
Sugar Maple will average about 2 1-2 per cent, from old 
trees, less from young ones. Nos. 1, 2, 5 and 6 are seldom 
tapped, as the sap is not rich enough in sugar to pay for the 
trouble of evaporation, the yield being generally less than 1 
per cent. 
Ash Leaf Maple has been experimented upon as a sugar 
producer by many individuals in various localities and always 
with favorable results so far as yield of sugar was concerned. 
The largest yield reported was obtained by Dr. Ennis of Ly¬ 
ons, Iowa, who states that he got 5 per cent. The writer, in 
the spring of 1868, obtained 3 8-11 per cent, from it, and others 
have reported getting from 3 to 4 1-2 per cent. 
Taking into account the quantity of sap to be obtained from 
19— Ag. Tr. 
