The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1961-03-30
Washington Star
Features County's
Maple Sugar Making

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Maryland was featured in The
Washington Evening Star Of Tues
day, March IA, with pictures of
the activity from farms o. Hubert
d. Stanton and Guy Stanton in the
Grantsville area
One photo is of Hubert Stanton
driving a team of horses through
a grove of sugar naples on his
way to the shed where the tankful
OF sap will be evaporated into
Maple sugar and syrup. Helping
him were his nepheWS, Tom Stan
ton. Is, and Stewart Stanton, 10.
Another showed Guy Stanton
gathering the sap in buckets from
a tree that possibly is 100 years old.
A columnist, George Kennedy,
dcvotes a column under The
Rambler" to tell the story.
When he and his photographer
Tom Hoy, had arrived at the Guy
Stanton farm he relates the fol-
lowing:
DESPITE THE RAIN and the
mud and the chill in the air Z
was fun to hear chickens cackling
over their egg production and
smell the cattle manure newly
spread on the wet ground and
hear the baaing of sheep and see
fuzzy little lambs with black ears
and feet-baby lambs that had
been dropped less than a month
ago. skipping around the ewes.
On the way we passed many
more forest giants with many more
pals.
We checked some of them. The
sap, or water as they call it in
"a sugar bush. was flowing all
right. The warm Sunday had
started it upwards
There were only old maple trees
in this pasture land. Some of
them with shattered tops, but flow
ing. They stood we'll apart. 1t was
evident that years and years ago
someone had removed all other
trees from the forest and left
only the naples standing. Most Of
them we're about 100 years old
on the bottom of the dale was
large shed of boards Weathered
black with steam issuing from
every pore and Granny II looked
as though it housed a still-and
what a still that would have been.
Inside we met Guy Stanton, a
little man, tapping the finished
maple syrup from the last tray of
the big evaporator 1t was heated
by gas.
Here we learned why we were
so disappointed in stolen maple
sap when we were kids-it hardly
tasted sweet
1t takes 40 gallons of sap or
water" to make one gallon of
strip. The 80 gallons is evaporated
off as steam. When the tempera-
ture in the last tray becomes 2l7
degrees or ) above the boiling
point of water. he knows it's syrup
HE HAS MADE SIRUP there 80
years: his father Al years before
him and someone before that No
wonder the trees are old
He uses a small tank truck to
bring the water to the evapora-
tor.
In a good year he produces as
much as LOO gallons of sirup. He
hopes this will be a good year
it's been good SO far Last year
he got only $50 gallons The aver
age is between 500 and 600.
He has checked the weather
carefully for almost four decades
but he still doesn't know what
makes a good year.
He said that 10 years ago there
were 100 producers of sirup and
sugar in Garrett County. Now he
thinks there are only IS.
He sells sugar by the pound and
maple strip by the gallon or half
gallon by mail. His post office is
Grantsvillc.
But most Of his production is
sold in bulk in big metal drums
that must hold 50 gallons. They
are labeled
Burke Mountain Maple Co.,