PLANT SUGAR MAPLES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 3528, 30 May 1905, Page 4

PLANT SUGAR MAPLES.

- Every Farmer Can Grow HJs Own Sofioiy ni . T/ Should we plant maple groves? There can hardly be two op:.mm.; ui; tais subject. The beet stiga r uni m Iryr; a problem, but the maple sugar intbr i:. x tv was a problem. It pays bcticr ..;au three-fourths of our farm work. At eight cents a pound maple sugar linos ready market, while much of Ibebeluv product sells at ten aud twelve cents. The sirup is sold by producers direeby to consumers at one dollar a gallon—very rarely ,at- less than *0 cents. Throughout, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other states this direct sale to consumers takes up a largo part of the product, excepting only two or three counties of northern New York. But it is not just now as a market product that the subject should be mainly considered. Every family is n sugar consumer and a sugar buyer. Most farmers can make the larger pari of this sugar supply as easily as they can raise their own potatoes. A family of six or seven will .consume from one to two barrels of sugar in a year. Granulated sugar will cost such a family fjorn sls to .S3O a year. A grove of 50j trees will produce from 200 to 230 pounds of maple sugar. That is, where the trees stand in the open. The product is less where the sugar is made from trees in the forest. This is equivalent to at least half the family’s requirements for sugar’. But the sales of sirup will make an aggregate value per tree even higher, A grove of 50 trees standing in the open will occupy not more than a quarter of an acre. ■ Besides the sugar product, the grove is advantageous for shade, also for an enormous product of humus each fall, and for windbreaks and shelter, and as an equalizer of temperature and moisture. Maple trees should grow in a grove. They do not thrive well as street trees, when; they are subject to much abuse of the saw and exposure of the trunk to hot sunshine. A grove might well be given place on every farm of 20 acres. Why shall there not be a genera] planting of maple groves during the spring of 1898 ?~N. Y. Tribune. HANDY FARM APPLIANCE. A Device Tlmt Serves Every Purpose - " the Stone lloat. Several years ago the writer felt the need of something lighter and smaller than an ordinary stone boat for.conveying light articles around the farm. The result of some study was the device shown in the illustration, which the hired man says is “about the handiest thing on the farm.” It is, in fact, a sort of cross between a stone boat and a bob sled. The length over all is five feet, the width 2% feet. The runners are of -hard maple, five feet long, ten inches wide, and two inches thick, the forward end rising 3% inches. The hardpicee is also of hard maple plank, 50 inches long, two inches thick ond one foot wide. An oval hole three inches from the front edge affords a

• GOOD THING TO HAVE AROUND. j means of attaching a chain, for hauling. | This piece is firmly fastened to the runners by six bolts—three at each t-Cft _ —of which the. heads are countersunk : in the lower sides of the runners. The i floor is made of white ash boards, inch ; thick and 00 inches long, nailed crosswise, (lush with the outer edge of the runners. This is surmounted on either side by a hickory rail two inches thick j and three inches wide, extending the ' entire length flush with the outside. These rails are secured in place by four inch lag screws. Made thus of selected materials, and firmly put together, it has been in use, summer and winter, tor five years, and is still nearly as good as new, save for the natural wear on the runners. For conveying plows, cultivators, other implements, seeds, etc., hauling | barrels of spraying mixture, removing j bowlders, and other light short hauls ; around the farm, it has become almost ; indispensable. On a small farm it serves about every purpose of the oldfashioned stone boat, and is of much i lighter draught.—George A. Martin, in N. Y. Tribune. How to Fight BlacU Rot. i Black rot has been causing serious ! loss among the cabbage growers, and the department of agriculture has been j investigating the disease, which, it is said, may be spread by the seed, manure and insects, especially slugs. Late-painted cabbage are less liable to da may.- than those planted early. The germ develops best in very hot weather, while cool weather seems to check it. Dotation is advised as a means of proven, ion. The bulletin observes that the planting of other crops for a long series of years seems to be the only satisfactory way of getting rid of the disease when ii hats once become serious. Fields 1 hat have shown even a little of the disease should not be planted to cabbages or other cruciferous plants for several years—Agricultural Epitomist. ;.o< u flood Tliiiatr to Dp. We do not. approve of tying trees to slakes, though' this is often recommended a.ml often done. The bark is ;;cl to be rubbed and injured in spite . f v.r;feh;illness. Much better is it to t-diiee the size of the head so the tree stand without aid, Nor would we up around a tree to brace it, beci,v .. often, when the ground is soft in the w’- : —■'ring of the trees oners the i.o ..oiu the stem, which in filled with water, and this, later, freezes and kills the bark and damages the tree.—Rural World.