Wichita eagle., 1890-03-06
MAPLE SIRUP AND SUGAR.
TALK WITH A DEALER ABOUT METH
obs AND POSSIBLE PROFITS.

TALK WITH A DEALER ABOUT METH
obs AND POSSIBLE PROFITS.
A Larger Output Than Is Generally Sup
posed-How to Care for and Tap tho
Old Time Methods of Sugar Farming.
There are good many interesting features
about the maple sugar product, the dealer
said 10 reporter. 1t is a deal more exten-
sive than most people imagine. Although the
foolish people of the country are cutting for
firewood every year thousands OF trees that
would yield handsome revenue if rightly
managed, the product is still more than TO-,
900, coo pounds q year, or say nearly one
fourth as great as the product Of cane and
sorghum sugar of the whole country. Yer
mont alone produces about 4, 900 600 pounds
yearly, of which the largest part comes 10
New York city. Although no record of the
amount handled in this city in year is at
hand, it is safe to say that more than Il, COO
600 pounds is received here every season.
Next to Vermont comes New York as
sugar producer. Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin
and New Hampshire follow. The hard or
sugar maple fourishes best in a cool climate,
the Western Reserve in Ohio being the best
sugar region of Ohio. Taking one thing with
another the Western Reserve people have the
sugar business in better shape than any other
people in the country, for they have learned
how to cultivate ard improve the sugar
bushes New trees are planted as fast as the
old ones die Care is taken in planting these
trees to place them SO they will produce the
most and the best quality of sap, and when
the sap is obtained it is boiled in an appa-
ratus especially well designed to produce
clean and pure sugar.
If farmers only knew it they could get
more money out of an acre Of sugar trees
than out of any grain crop raised on the same
land The best sugar bushes are on fairly
moist land that slopes to the south. An acre
of land will support thirty healthy trees. A
much larger number will thrive Oh an acrs,
but the larger number will produce less sugar
than thirty will | am not sure but twenty
five would be a more profitable number TO
put on that space, for it is well known that
the quality OF the sap from trees standing too
close together Is thin. Even when trees are
thick, if the soil is moist abundant sap may
be had, but the sap is like the milk from slop
fed cows. 1t takes between four and five gal
Ions Of good sap TO make gallon Of sirup in
proper apparatus, and gallon Of sirup
will make eight pounds of sugar. But where
the sap is thin it will require double the
amount-sometimes more than double-to
produce the same quantity of sugar.
In well ordered bush of thirty trees to
the acre the product, taking one year with
another, will run not much below ten pounds
of sugar to the tree. The ordinary bush that
receives care and is tapped in ignorant
fashion, viii produce no more than three
pounds to the tree. The product of the well
ordered bush can be set down, therefore, as
800 pounds Of sugar to the acre. for which the
farmers can get at the very least ten cents a
pound right on the ground where it is made
If he got $40 or Sl2 an acre for hay from the
same ground, or say <l5 for oats or wheat,
he would think he was getting rich hand
over fist. At the same time the labor of max
ing the crop of sugar would be much less e1-
pensive than the work of making a crop Of
oats.
The best apparatus for making maple
sugar from the sap is the modern condenser
used in making condensed milk On the
Western Reserve they have condensed milk
factory where milk is handled during the
regular milk season Formerly this factory
stood idle in cold weather until say the 1st Of
May. But now along at the end of February
the farmers begin to tap the trees in the
sugar bushes The taps are iron spiles driven
into a half inch hole. The sap runs into
covered pals made for the purpose. Ii il
gathered from the pals into milk cans and
driven from the bush to the factory, whsre
1t is weighed in as mia is The sap is then
boiled in a vacuum condenser. IL comes out
the most beautiful sirup imaginable. The
farmer gets his proportion Of this srup less
percentage for the boiling. The sirup sells |
readily at the factory at $3.50 a gallon. |
Ordinary sirup brings from 81 to 1.10.
The modern sugar bush, if of any extent, |
requires quite little capital. The spiles are
steel tubes, and the pals are useful for moth |
ing else. A house must be built to cover the |
boiling pan. The boiling pan must be set in |
a brick furnace in such way that no direct |
flame reaches it-in fact it ought to be set in |
sand bath, so that the sirup can never burn. |
There must be a big tank in this house to hold |
the sap and a number Of tin pipe lines should |
be laid from it to other tanks at convenient !
points in the bush, SO that the sap can berun,
instead of carried, into the house. 1t is Gus
tomary to gather the sap in barrels placed on !
a sled, which a horse draws through the bush,
but this is wasteful, for much sap is spilled .
by the jolting and frequent rehandlng. One
inventor proposed to run pipe lines TO all the
trees, but that scheme was failure
There are trees that yield as high as twenty
pounds Of sugar in season, and that average
for many years at stretch from twelve TO
fifteen pounds. There is one tree ct Preston,
Pa, that has been tapped regularly every
year since 1890. Sugar from it was sent to
Gen. Washington, and the family owning it
have made Ike present from it to every
president since his time 1t is the patriarch
of NAPLES. The ordinary maple. however, is
good for twenty five seasons, after which It
should be used for tirewocd. Meantime e
new one to take its place should have been
raised.
OF course, the manner of gathering the sap
and boiling it has been greatly improved
since the days when trees were tapped by
gashing them with an ak and allowing the
sap to flow from the cash over q chip into a
trough made from log There are no spruce
and birch and hetn4ock leaves and twigs in
the modern sap, aud no sap bugs and flies to
be SKINNED out. The sirup is row well nigh
rs colorless as the sap itself, but somehow the
old heads ike me 90 not find 1t quite so much
TO our taste as il was in the Old DAYS Ths
value of the old sort is less. but
there was something about the leaves and
twigs that are so carefully excluded now tha!
did not hurt the favor cant's worth New
York Sun.
THE MAGNOLIA TREE.
Fine Specimen in Philsdelphis Leads to