Lower coast gazette., 1913-09-06

Maple %SyrupandS Sugar
in tie United States.
The production of maple syrup and
maple sugar is purely an American IN
dustry, Canada being the only country
outside of the United States where
they are made. At the time OF the
Napoleonic wars, sugar was produced
from the maple trees in Bohemia, and
the industry received substantial
means of encouragement from the
government of that country. Large
groves of maple trees were planted,
and much attention paid to them, but
as the yield of the sugar was small,
and such a length of time elapsed be-
fore the trees could be tapped, the in
dustry soon died out. At about that
time the sugar beet came into promi-
nence. The earliest explorers in the
United States found the Indians max
ing supar from the maple tree, and in
some districts, especially along the
st. Lawrence River, producing it in
considerable quantities for trading
purposes. The white people began to
make maple products and to apply
more advanced methods to their man.
ufacture. The crude methods of the
Indians were soon improved upon, but
beyond the tapping and the boiling,
the general process remains the same
as at that time, according to a recent
report of the United States Depart
ment of Agriculture. For many years,
especially with the early settlers in
the northern part of the United States,
and even down in Kentucky and Vir-
ginia, maple sugar was the only sugar
used. In the reports of the early
meetings of the numerous American
agricultural societies are letters from
various sugar makers describing their
attempts to produce an article equal
to the imported sugar, or m%uscovado
OF the West Indies. Cane sugar meth
DDS of manufacture were tried, will
varying degrees of success. A few re
tineries for producing white sugar
We're built and worked with mapl,
sugar as their Jaw supply. The iro1
kettle, birch bark tank, wooden spiles
and old way of tapping yielded a dark
ill-tasting product, but with care an
changes in methods and apparatus til
III products were improved. In thos
days many trees were killed by tn
crude methods of tapping, and muc
stress was laid upon this operation b
the early writers. To-day, maple S,
gar and maple syrup are cOnsidere
. delicacies, and are not produced
- such quantities as formerly. The Al
ks gregate of all pure maple product
cd and the many limitations, may be tt
ks same, for it is said that were all tt
ay maple trees cut down, and thus tt
ap supply of maple. sap cut off, no Dire
he in the quantity of syrup or sug;
would be noted. Within the last s
nm or seven years there has been a +
,rs newed tendency towards the produ
he ton of a better grade OF maple pro
Ter ucts. Maple syrup or maple slug
Ter prepared by the best methods is
he %light.colored pleasant-tasting produ'
Iay Contrary characteristics are the resi-
,ur Of uncleanly methods, and possib
sour sap In n%inety-nine cases'out Of
oil hundred, and were manufacturers
take greater care in their methO
:, their results would show impro1
ho ment. All the naples have SWEEP );
for but only from a few at the Americ
species has sugar been made in p;
ked ing quantities. The first place is HI
ted by the sugar maple, and a variety
it, the black maple. The red map
. the silver maple, and the Oregon Il
PIE are of less Importance and the /
elder is the least important of all. I
sugar maple spreads out over a W:
area, but as a tree for the product
Of sugar in paying quantities its raj
is limited to eastern New Engla
New York, Pennsylvania, the Sou
49,. nro1on I;orc tho 0hio No1lay c