SUGAR MAPLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 May 1938, Page 7

SUGAR MAPLES

MODERN EFFICIENT METHODS IN CANADA. SPLENDID CROP PROMISED. OTTAWA, Canada. “Sap’s running” in the almost innumerable maple trees of Canada which extend from Western Ontario down to the Atlantic seaboard in Nova Scotia. More than 50.000 Canadian farmers are harvesting their annual spring crop of maple nroducts. It i c estimated that 24,000,000 trees will be ’tapped” this season in Canada. The total stand of sugar maples in the eastern part of the Dominion is placed at 70,000,000 trees, so there is abundant room for expansion in this branch of agriculture. Although enlarged commercialisation of the manufacture of maple products has brought modern efficient methods, Canadians still enjoy the thrill of a trip to the sugar bush in the early spring. There they may engage in taffy pulls, taste the fresh sap and watch the “boiling down” in the big. black, iron pots suspended over the roaring out-door fires. The excellent quality of Canadian maple sugar and maple syrup is known the world over. These products are protected from adulteration by legislative standards and government supervision. The Canadian Government insists that maple sugar and maple syrup placed on the market must be 100 per cent. pure.

Prospects are favourable for a splendid crop this year and it is estimated that the production of maple syrup and maple sugar will have a value of more than 4,000.000 dollars. These products find a ready market at home and large quantities are sent to the United States where in recent years maple sugar has been used extensively in the curing of tobacco. To a lessor extent Chnadian maple products are shipped to a score of other countries.