St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1890-10-16
Gbe Californian
MAPLE SUGAR BOUNTY.
Letters from Gen. Grouf and Secretary
RuSE

The following letter from Congress
man Grout to the Burlington Free
Press Will explain the maple sugar
bounty clause in the new tariff.
Referring to the recent statement
in the Free Press condensed from the
Boston Journal relative to the maple
sugar bounty as finally left by the
tariff bill, and for the information of
those interested, many of whom have
already asked numerous questions
concerning its provisions, allow me
to say in correction of the Journals
statement that the bill does not give
one and one-haIf cents bounty to
sugar of any grade, nor is any sugar
required to test 90 per cent by the
polariscope to be entitled to bounty,
nor did the House fix the limit at
$50 pounds. These are all errors as
well as the statement attributed to
the writer that the 500 pound limit
would reduce the number of farmers
who would be entitled to the bene-
fits of the bounty at least one-half."
1t IS true, that the few friends of the
maple sugar bounty did not like this
provision. They wanted it reduced
one-half at least, but found the CONF
mittee unalterable on the ground
that 500 pounds still left a large
number of persons for the govern
ment to deal with thereby making
the distribution of bounty at that
limit even quite expensive. 1t also
seemed to be the general opinion
that the commissioner of internal
revenue who is authorized to make
Ill f,,I .l1f
CARRYING the bounty provisions into
effect, would allow small producers
to combine their product and thus
be entitled to the bounty. SO upon
the whole this feature was thought
not to be so bad after all.
1t will be remembered that as the
bill passed the House no provision
was made for maple sugar. The
Senate extended the bounty to maple
but to be entitled to it on any kind
of sugar, 500 pounds must be pro-
duced
The Senate fixed July 1, 1891, when
the bounty was to take effect, and
left the polariscope test at so degrees,
just where the House fixed it original
ly. When the bill got back from Sen
ate, the House nOn-concurred i'll all
the Senate amendments in order to
get the matter into conference with
out delay. The conference commit
tee agreed to leave the limit at 500
pounds and also agreed to July 1891,
as the time when the bounty was to
go into effect, but at the same time
changed the polariscOpe test SO that
between 80 and 90 degrees the
bounty should be 1$4 cents per pound
and III order to get . cents 1t must
90 above 90. The friends of the
maple had asked the committee to
fix time SO that the maple product
should share the bounty with other
sugars of next year, but the change
in the pOlariscOpe test was Il COM
plete surprise to them and they could
hardly help the feeling, that while
the committee were preserving the
form of a bounty on maple, they
were quite willing that the road to
it should not be an easy one But
the committee explained that the
reason for the date of July I, 1891,
was SO that no payment of bounty
should come within the present fiscal
year, in order to meet the view of
spare the 500, OOO, 900 duty on sugar
without deficit; which, should
there be one, would be increased by
the bounty on maple sugar This
bounty Judging by the estimated
product of 1889 would be just about
81 900, 900. Here again the com
mittee were immOvable, but there is
this crumb of comfort left. The
bounty will expire July 1, 1905, and
the maple sugar men who hold on
till that time will get the bounty
they ought to have next spring, and
that year cane, sorghum and beet
sugar will have none.
The change of test from so to 90
per cent in order to entitle to 2 cents
bounty with only "a cents between,
applies to all sugars, but will most
affect maple sugar makers because
out of the great number some will
be negligent of the conditions and
fail of the bounty. But it is difficult
to give any good reason why differ
ence should not be made between
sugar of so and that of 90 per cent
of saccharine matter, since it is for
that and not water that the bounty
is offered.
But it is of more Importance to the
maple sugar maker to know where
with reference to the required test,
his product will fall His status is
shown by the following letter from
the secretary of agriculture;
Washington, June s, 1890.
Hon. William w. Grout, House of
RenreSeOt n tIyeS
Sir:-Replying to your letter of the
I'd inst, in which You ask, What
does maple sugar polarize" | will
say that the degree which is indicated
by maple sugar in the polariscope
depends wholly upon the purity of
that article.
In some cases maple sugar is made
very pure and dry: in such instances
the polariscOpe will be between "a
and 81 per cent In other cases it is
made quite moist and contains
considerable portion of invert sugar,
formed in boiling; in such cases the
polariscope may fall as low as 70 or
10 per cent On page 1876 of bulletin
No 5 of the chemical division of this
department, is a list of analysis of
20 samples of maple sugar obtained
from various parts of the United
States. The highest polarization
obtained in these &c samples was
Sc. 81 per cent, and the lowest II so
per cent.
In general it may be said, from the
data which have been collected by
the department, that the mean polar
ization of maple sugar is about 80
per cent. Respectfully,
]. NJ. RUsK, Secretary"
From this it would seem that with