The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-04-22

so that whatever tends TO make the
home or the farm or the country at
tractive, whatever adds to its present
or prospective value, should have every
home and landowners assiduous thought
and labor. These observations apply
particularly to the treatment of their
maple woodlands by the farmers of the
state. The cutting down of maple
groves, for slight immediate gain, and
the neglect to provide by replanting for
the permanency and extension of those
still standing, is injurious, to an extent
which they fail to realize, to the well
fare of the people of Vermont, indi-
vidually and collectively. Every ma
pie tree cut down, particularly during
the past twenty-five or thirty years,
would, in every four years at the long
est, have produced sugar equivalent in
value to its worth for timber or fuel.
Looking at this fact from an economic
point of view solely, what wastefulness,
shortsightedness and folly impel men
todestroy these trees. The silly creature,
who IN his greed killed the goose that
laid the golden eggs, seems to have had
many imitators in Vermont. The table
above shows what the states maple
sugar product was in 1879 The mo-
lasses, reduced to sugar, would make
the aggregate reported production more
than twelve and one fourth million
pounds. The presumption is that the
amount actually made was considerably
larger. 1t was worth in round num-
bers at least one million dollars. 1t
was equivalent to supply of forty
pounds of sugar to every man, woman
and child in the state. What the pro-
duction has been from year to year can
only be conjectured from the above sta
tistics. That season was about an av-
erage one. 1t is probably not far out
of the way to assume that since and for
period of years before 1879 the maple
sugar industry has added a million dol
lars annually to the income of the far
mers of the state. 1t is reasonable to
assume that had the sugar places which
have been sacrificed for fuel and timber
been preserved and operated, the pro-
duction of the state would have been
doubled, and it is not an unreasonable
belief that if existing groves were util-
lied, and the business conducted with
skill and enterprise, Vermont might
add annually two million dollars in
stead of one million to her income
from this single source. 1t is nearly all
gain. The original output is simple,
There is in the business nothing like
the risk or expense that attaches to the
manufacture of cane sugar, and fine
maple syrup has no more relation to
the Louisiana production than has
clover honey. Maple trees require no
cultivating, no costly fertilizers, no pro-
lection from the dangers that threaten
and often destroy other farm crops.
The product is quickly husbanded, at a
time of the year when other work is
impossible or impracticable, and the
timely revenue it brings goes a long way
to pay multitude of bills accruing be-
fore the summer and autumn crops have
ripened and are convertible into cash
In view of these and many other favor
able considerations, Arbor Day has a
suggestion of vital importance to the
farmers. Many of their sugar-places
are old, and there are wide intervals
between the trees. In these vacant
spaces new trees should be planted and
the young saplings which may be
growing carefully protected. On every
farm are rocky ridges and waste places.
Plant them with naples. AS dis
tinguished and practical writer on for
estry has said: "We owe it to our
children to leave our lands and towns
the better for our tillage, and we
wrong both ourselves and them if our
fields are impoverished by our IMPROVE
dence. Though the profit
from tree-planting is remote, the pleas.
ure is immediate. The sour and self.
ish soul may say, Posterity has done
nothing for me, and | will do nothing
for posterity.' But every effort tc
start agencies whose benign influence
shall long endure, gives a glad inspira
ton and a conscious elevation of char
acter." Vermont has superior adj
vantages in climate and soil for maple
sugar production, and her twelve mill
ion pounds should be raised to fifty
million. In the furtherance of this
great interest the legislature should
provide by law for gathering annually
the statistics of the quantity made, anG
by every other possible means encour
age and advance the development O
this peculiar and unique source o
wealth. Let the farmers remembe
their maple groves on Arbor Day, ant
confer the means of wealth on thu
next generation, while clothing waste
and unsightly areas with trees who's,
maturity shall add to the country
rural charms.