The Redwood gazette., 1897-05-27
MAPLE SUGAR LORE.
Vermont Not the Chief Producer
Sugar to Be Avoided.

4
Sugar to Be AVOIDED.
vermont for some reason" said {
local grocer, lis generally supposed t
be one great source of the country I
maple sugar supply, and yet Vermont
makes less than one fifteenth of the
whole. Vermont's reputation fol
producing the finest quality Of sugs,
is deserved, for the sugar makers Of
t. at State we're the first to recognize
the importance of the commodity as q
factor in domestic as we'll as foreign
commerce, and to bring to its manu-
facture not only scientific helps, but
the potent aid of observation and
study of the maple tree, and the effects
upon it of climate, soil, and meteoro-
logical conditions. Vermont maple
sugar has national fame, as has butter.
although there is not pound of but
ter made in or around Goshen that en-
ters market now or has been for years.
"New York city dealers sold 12,OOO,-
coo pounds of maple sugar last year
Three quarters of that amount was sold
as Vermont sugar, at least 1000, ,O0O
more than that State produces. To-day
Delaware and Cattarangus counties in
New York, some of the northern tier
counties Of Pennsylvania, particularly
Susquehanna and Wayne, and more
particularly central county of Penn.
sylvania Somerset besides the coun-
ties of the Western Reserve of Ohio
are making maple sugar equal to the
very best that ever came from Yer
mont, just as Delaware and Chemung
counties in New York and certain
counties in Illinois and Minnesota are
making butter that people set in their
ways are to-day buying under the old
name and fame of Goshen butter
So, while maple sugar bought as Yer
mont sugar in this city may not be
the Green Mountain State product
buyers may rest easy. The chances
are they have got sugar made in New
York, Pennsylvania or Ohio, but it is
just as good.
The true maple syrup season begins
about March l, and lasts until the
middle of April, yet one sees every
year, early in February, in the high
priced groceries tempting looking
bars and cakes of maple sugar labelled
'Vermont-First Run The grocers
buys that article for just what they
represent it to be to their customers
but instead of being the first run o1
the Vermont sugar camps it is the last
run of the year before, and something
else. At the close of every maple
sugar season certain Vermont dealers
and dealers in other sugar-making
localities, too, buy up from the farmers
all the poor or refuse syrup and sugar
they have on hand. These dealers
send out agents through the country
to hunt up this inferior tail-end stock
It is bought cheap and is kept owe!
until the next winter. As early a.
January the dealers begin to prepare
it for the market. The syrup anc
sugar is boiled together with large
additions of cheap brown sugar ane
glucose The result of this revamp
ing OF the last J ear'ssinferior goods in
! to goods still more inferior is shippee
to New York and other cities as th'
very first of the new crop of Vernon
maple sugar, the city folks buy it q
fancy prices and gloat over it:
1T is the popular belief that pur'
maple sugar is invariably known b,
its dark, damp looking appearance
In the old days of maple sugar max
ing the product was necessarily yer.
dark, because the simple processes
then in use could not make it light
But it was full Of impurities all tn,
same. No adulterations but natura
impurities. Nowadays it is not th'
dark maple sugar that should be re
garded as the pure article, for it i:
more apt to be the most impure. The
very best maple sugar that comes
from Vermont or elsewhere is of {
light, clear, dry, glossy brown-se
very light, indeed, that it looks like
clarified beeswax.'