To the Green Mountain State belongs the honor of furnishing the Maple
its safest refuge and best home. Here it grows in all its beauty and
luxury of foliage. Here too, as the frosts of fall settle upon our
maple forests has the painters tried to copy and place upon canvas
the picture as the glossy green leaves turn to red and gold. Once it
reigned supreme as King of the forests of Vermont. Thousands of acres
once occupied by the sugar maple have been cleared for agriculture, and
the maple like the dusky warrier has gradually been driven back to the
hills.
Sugar maples have been transplanted to some extent in France, Germany,
Austria and England, with a view to adding sugar making to their many
lines of industries, but without satisfactory results.
Of all the trees of the forest the maple was the most valuable to the
early settlers. Its wood furnished the best fuel for their greedy
fireplaces. Also in the early days a considerable income was derived
from the burning of charcoal, and the maple made the best of material
for this. But even more than for all these purposes it lost its life
in the manufacture of potash. Not alone was the settlers’ great iron
kettles used for boiling down the sap of the maple into sugar, but were
principally used for boiling down the lye leached from wood ashes into
potash thus deriving a large income, although it resulted in the same
old story of killing the goose that laid the golden egg. But alas! Not
alone did the people of years gone by destroy and lay waste our maple
groves. The maple worm for several years stripped our trees of their
foliage, and bid fair to make sugaring a thing of the past. But worst
of all at the present time are the veneer mills, which pay large prices
for maple logs. And unless some means be found to induce the farmer to
spare his maple grove, the maple Sugar industry of Vermont, like the
Indian Brave who roamed at will beneath their shade will have passed
from among us.
Well may we cherish this grand old tree and be proud of sending forth
to the world an article which in its purity and delicacy of flavor is
unsurpassed by any sweetness otherwise produced.
[Illustration: GATHERING MAPLE SAP WITH OXEN AFTER A SNOW STORM.]