The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1925-03-26

| only 1t has more at stake-for the
girl can blame her i'll success on the
interference and teasing of her beau
AT the proper moment the syrup,
now almost devoid Of water, is ladled
into small molds, where it hardens
into the familiar maple-sugar blocks,
or it is ladled into a wide wooden
trough to be padded and kneaded
until 1t graduates. Working the
sugar to granulation and the antece-
dent process, starting with the boil
ing in the caldron, forms the we'll
known stirring off," an event in the
rural life Of Western Maryland that
ranks in social Importance with the
barn raising or the corn husking.
News that a neighbor is going to.
have a stirring off" is bruited far
and wide, and coincident with the
finishing of the product, which may
take until far into the night, festivi-
ties, with "tar balls" as the chief re-
freshment, are kept up around the
sugar camp. And when it is all over
each guest is likely to depart with a
sackful of maple-sugar blocks or a
can of syrup distributed as favors.
There is nothing more to the pro-
cess except the mail-order list, con-
tracts with large sugar concerns, in
whose distribution the romance of
locality is lost, and a few doorstep
sales to automobile tourists, most of
whom come from Pittsburgh.
The amount of maple sugar and
syrup made in Western Maryland,
however, is considerable. Apparatus
such as that described on the farm of
Mr.. Yost is said to be capable Of
handling 100 barrels of water daily
and taking it through to the complet-
ion of sugar in a time much shorter
than that required in the old method.
"When l was nothing but a stump
of boy" Mr.. Yost said, 81 remember
that my father and | did not dare to
leave the camp in boiling time for
weeks at a stretch. Some one had to
be on watch all the time and so we
took turns on duty night and day.
That's all past and gone now, though.
Often l boil until II at night, but not
much beyond"
Output of the groves is reckoned
usually in what it would yield were
none sold as syrup, but all converted
to sugar Mr.. Yost maintains that in
good seasons he can count on APP
proximately 1000 pounds of sugar.
An average yield, he said, is about
four pounds Of sugar season from
each keller hung out, although many
grove owners assert that one can
count on seven.
Maple sugar at the groves brings
from IS to 25 cents a pound and the
cost of production-bsrring the cost
of keelers and. spilers, the initial out
lay for which can be divided over
several seasons, and interest on the
cost of land, which starts at $3.50
and perhaps never exceeds 500 an
acre-is not excessive.
There are producers, however,
whose yields are greater than Mr..
Iost's, some of them turning out as
much as 10000 pounds of sugar an
nually There are as we'll a number
OF small grove owners whose annual
product does no more than supply the
family's needs. Altogether the Mary
land forestry authorities know of
forty-five owners and operators of
sugar-maple groves, and when the
last census of trees was taken, in
1919, it was found by these same au-
thorities that 25,300 sugar naples
were tapped.
Efforts have been made at times to
get the grove owners to cooperate for
Standardization of product and for
education Of the public as to the
Western Maryland maple sugar, it is
held, can be almost the color of gran
ulated cane sugar if it is of first
quality It's lightness, however, is
sometimes mistaken for adulteration
with the cane product.
To offset this fact some of the
farmers purposely boil the syrup and
sugar under such conditions as to
make them dark, with consequent
harm to the flavor. Exposing of the
water or the syrup to sunlight, for
instance, is said to darken the prod
uct and impart twang.
The efforts, however, as yet have
met with no success. Maryland's
maple-sugar industry, for all its ad-
vance in apparatus, is still a barn
yard, individual industry And what
is more, there is a move under way to
! keep it so.
Apparently, the industry was given
a start in the State by the granting
of bounty originally to those who
tapped and utilized their trees. Some
years ago, for purposes of economy,
the bounty was withdrawn.