FLANT SUGAR MAPLES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3591, 28 October 1905, Page 4

FLANT SUGAR MAPLES.

Vvttr Farmer Cun Crow Ilia Own Supply of Snarnr. Should we plant maple groves? There can hardly be two opinions on this subject. The beet sugar industry is a problem, butt lie maple sugar industry never was a problem. It pays belter than three-fourths of cur farm work. At eight cents a pound maple sugar finds ready market, while much of the better product sells at ten and twelve cents. The.sirup is sold by producers directly to consumers at one dollar a gallonvery rarely at less than 80 cents. Throughout New Vt.k, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other states this direct sale to consumers takes up a large , part of the product, excepting only two or three cour.'.les cl northern New York. But it i.j jjol just now as a market product that the subject should be mainly considered. Every family is a •ugar consumer and a sugar buyer. Jdiost farmers can make the larger part 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. G ranulated sugar will cost such a family from sls to s3u a year. A grove of 50J trees will produce from 200 to 250 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 ner tree even higher. A grove of 50 standing in the open will occupy no |. more tlian a quarter of an acre. Eesidr 1 sugar product, the grove Is advaTU‘ a^cous or shade, n -"o * or an enormous P roduct of humus each fall. #ndfor wiqu b r eaks and shelter ’ aml a; an equalizer temperature and momture. Maple should grow in a grove. They do W* thnve ff 1 * f gtreet trees, where tb? s ’ : ' s - , « ctt “ much abuse of the saw ahu ex,■ '•"re ol the trunk to hot sunshine. A prove might well be given place on every farm of 20 acres. Why shall there not be a general planting of maple groves during the spring of 1898?--N. Y. Tribune.