Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1885-03-20
Observations in the sugar orchard.

Timothy Wheeler of Waterbury has for
many years made a special study of the sugar
maple and the flow of sap He gives the fol-
lowing summary of his conclusions in the
American Cultivator. If not always entirely
accurate, he deserves the credit of having ad-
vanced some original theories, and, apparent
ly, of having proved them to be correct
Apropos to what he says about the quantity
and quality of sap from trees standing near
water, we may say that we know of a maple
from which 80 pounds of sugar have been
made in a season, which stands by the bank
of a stream where, in the spring, the running
water comes up to the foot of the trunk Mr.
Wheeler says
Cold nights, with the mercury below freez
ing, and warm days, with an occasional snow
storm or at least a snowy atmosphere, are
necessary for the free flow of maple sap. Ma
pie sap will run better by day than by night.
The brighter and more sunny the day, the
more freely the sap runs.
As law, trees are more or less active in
the day time, and they rest more or less at
night. The darker the night the less sap
runs, other conditions being equal. After
three o'clock in the afternoon it will be MOTTO
ed that as the sun declines tue dripping sap
lessons, even when there is no change of tenn
perature.
Sap caught during the day is sweeter than
that caught at night. The nearer the occur
renee of freeze or a snow storm that sap is
caught the sweeter it is. The sap season of
the maple is while the tree is not in leaf-a
period of some six months. As soon as the
leaves fall, the first freeze and thAw interyen-
ing the sap will run provided an iucision is
made.
The first run of sap in the fall and the last
in the spring are very nearly water with the
smallest percentage of sugar. As the sap sea
son advances towards the maximum flow.
sometimes occurring in March aud at others
in April, sap increases in sweetness, and from
this point 1t lessens until the close of the sap
season.
Sap also increases in quantity until the max
imum, and then it decreases or, in other
words, sap increases in quantity, quality and
density, and may say color also, until the
best run (Which call the maximum rum. and
then it decreases in all these particulars.
Sap commences at a water point and ends
at the same point. The average sap of our
sugar places contains from p to per cent of
sugar In the fall, or at the beginning of the
sap season, the sap commences in the top, and
it ends in the butt late in the spring.
The sap starts at the surface and ends at
est sap lies at the surface, while the poorest
lies at or near the centre. There are hun.
dreds of grades of sap in every maple. These
grades differ in color, taste and density, This
fact is doubted by many, but the most incred.
ulous can be convinced by a few easy-tried
experiments.
Sap grows sweeter and sweeter as we as
cend the tree. but lessons in quantity. Guam
tity and quality do not go together. Sap is
sweetest in the alburnum or sap wood, and it
is sweetest of all in the outside ring, or last
seasons growth.
The sap decreases in a regular graduation
from circumference TO centre, and increases
in color, so that the highest-coored sap Con
the same level, from circumference to the
hearty is the poorest in sugar but in relation
to altitude the highest sap is the highest COL
ored, and yet it is the sweetest.
Sap is the sweetest on the south side of q
tree. Sap will run earlier on the south side,
but it will run later on the north side.
The shalower we bore tree the less sap
we get, but the winter is the product. The
deeper we bore, the darker tbs sugar, but the
greater the quantity.
The life of a tree is on the outside the
heart is lifeess or dead. Hence the shallow
or we bore the tree the healthier is the prod
uct as its origin is where life ia the most in
tense. Deep boring gives us dark sap and
dark sugar, because the wood is dark having
less life as it approaches the death centre
Second growth trees, having SO much white
wood, make the incest sugar
The thicker the trees in the orchard, the
poorer the sap. The more scattering the
trees the greater the quantity aud the sweet
er the quality of the sap. Sap is sweeter in
some seasons than it is in others. The drier
the soil the sweeter the sap. Rocky hillsides
give us the sweetest sap. Sap runs best when
fires burn the best.
Trees standing beside moist swampy land
and beside warm running surface water will
run much sap, but it will be weak and watery.
Trees standing beside cold spring will run
much and very sweet sap. The better the
sap season the better is the sugar.
The white maple will make nicer sugar
than the rock maple, but not so much of it.
A varied temperature is necessary for free
flow Of sap. Good sap weather requires that
the opposite ends of the maple should border
on or be affected by opposite degrees of tenn
perature.
In ordinary years sap caught 10 feet apart in
the same tree differs in color taste and densi.
ty, so as to be easily detected, but occasionly
there Is year that the most careful testing
will discover but triAing difference Thus
1883 was an instance of the latter fact.
Al the beginning OF the sap season lin the
fall), and at the close of the same lin the
spring., one quart OF sap and one quart of
water will go the same notch on the scale
but the sap will raise the beam little more
than the water.
A stub, with the entire top broken of, will
run sap freely, provided it was broken off the
pre- iJus scar on.
The present mode of tapping trees with