Part 4

As an illustration, although we get $11.50 per dozen gallons for a sap maple syrup that is boiled from the sap of the maple tree and the character of the maple syrup that I have just described, about 95 percent of our business is on the syrup that is made from the maple sugar and the cane sugar rather than on the syrup made from the sap itself. Now, if we have to take this maple syrup and brand it as cane sugar, or have any such restrictions, we can not sell it. Now, what are we going to do? We do not believe in frauds any more than you do. We think just as much of our reputation as you do of yours; but we do not want to be held responsible for conditions that we have not built up.

Mr. Coombs. It seems to me your whole argument has illustrated that everybody who buys these things knows he is not buying the pure article.

Mr. Richardson. It is either that or you are deceiving them, one or the other.

Mr. Madden. Well, I will answer another phase of that question.

Now, it is commonly assumed, I think, that these blends, mixtures, substitutes, and what some of our theoretical gentlemen call commercial frauds, are done for the purpose of palming off on the people something that is cheap or inferior at a high price. Right there is where the mistake is made. The profits on that class of goods are less to us than on the higher class and more expensive goods, because competition forces these lower-class commodities down to such an extent that they pay us less profit than any other.

We could not take a maple sugar and mix it with cane sugar and obtain the price for pure maple-sugar syrup unless it had the quality, unless it cost so much. In other words, in speaking of maple syrup—and here is the part of this I forgot to speak of—if you take maple sugar and reduce it to the liquor, as we call it, and had to sell it without the addition of any reducing sugar or white syrup—not glucose, but pure cane or beet sugar—if you have to sell it without doing that, it would be so expensive as to be prohibitory, because with Canadian maple sugar worth twelve cents a pound today, it taking eight pounds of it to make a gallon of syrup, you would have a price of nearly a dollar a gallon for your liquor as a first cost, without the cost of package. * * *

The above quotations will illustrate sufficiently well the processes of manufacturers and dealers in adulterating maple syrup. It is evident from this testimony that if the pure article be obtained when purchased at random it is by accident rather than by intention. Whatever may be the condition of the products when they leave the manufacturers in Vermont, New York, Ohio, or Canada, it is evident that all that part which goes into general commerce is subject to extensive adulterations. Only that part which enters domestic commerce, that is sold directly by the manufacturer to the consumer, can be considered above suspicion.

It is evident from the above résumé of the subject that the adulteration of maple syrup is practiced to an enormous extent. As stated by one of the witnesses, it is doubtful if more than 5 percent of the amount sold in this country is the genuine article. It is evident that the makers of the genuine article are forced into competition with these extensive adulterations, thus lowering the legitimate price. Every grove of maple trees in the United States would be worth a great deal more to its owner if the state and national laws should be so framed as to eradicate this great evil. Such laws would permit the sale of these mixed goods under their proper names, and thus protect both the manufacturer and consumer.

Necessity for Sugar Makers’ Organizations.

With a steadily growing demand for maple syrup, which today is almost entirely supplied by the mixer, the producers of pure syrup can hope to control the trade only through organization. The difference between the pure and the adulterated product is so marked that there would be little question as to choice, with the genuine sugar known to the popular trade. A large number of the consumers hardly know pure maple syrup when they taste it, and as so great a part of that on the market is spurious, they have little chance to learn. Under such a condition the market can be gained for the pure product only by means of united action. An example of such action is the present Vermont Sugar Growers’ Association.

The situation is very similar to that which has already been successfully met, in the case of certain other farm products, by organized cooperation of producers. Sometimes, as in Germany and Canada, this has been initiated and substantially aided by government action; sometimes, as in Ireland and England, it has been carried through entirely by private enterprise. Some years ago Canadian dairy products formed but an insignificant proportion of the exports of these articles to Great Britain. Now, through the efforts of the Canadian government to foster intelligent and honest methods of production, an English market has been secured for the Canadian output. The Irish Agricultural Organization Society has gone far toward bringing about an economic regeneration of the island, and in Germany rural prosperity has been vastly increased by the same methods. In all these cases the principal purposes aimed at have been the improvement of methods of production, and furnishing a guaranty of purity to consumers.

In the case of maple sugar producers the first necessity is a market for high grade, unadulterated sugar and syrup. This they should be able to secure without much difficulty through responsible association, which can guarantee the quality of all the product bearing its name or stamp. * * *

The Amount of Sugar in Maple Sap.

Maple sap is a nearly colorless liquid composed of water, sugar and various mineral substances, such as lime, potash, magnesia, and iron; it also contains some organic matter in the form of vegetable acids. The peculiar flavor of maple sugar comes, not from the sugar, but from some one or a combination of all the other substances contained in the sap.

The amount of sugar in the sap of the average sugar maple tree varies greatly, the percentage changing in each tree as the season progresses. Careful experiments have shown that the sap contains on an average about 3 percent of sugar. The maximum is reported at 10.2 percent, which was found in a small flow of sap from a sugar maple near the end of a season, during which the tree averaged 5.01 percent.

The Manufacture of Sugar and Syrup.

The Sap Season.

The sap season throughout the maple sugar belt of the United States generally begins about the middle of March and continues until the third week in April but it varies very widely with a late or an early spring. Sugar making has begun as early as February 22 and as late as the first week in April. The season lasts on an average about four weeks. The longest run on record included forty-three days, and the shortest eight days.

THE VERMONT MAPLE SUGAR MAKERS’ ASSOCIATION.

Was organized at Morrisville, Vermont, January, 1893. The object of this association is to improve the quality and increase the quantity of the maple product of the state, and to protect the manufacturer and consumer from the many fraudulent preparations that are placed upon the markets of this country as pure maple sugar and syrup, and to inform the general public where the genuine article can be procured. The members of this association consist of the best manufacturers of maple sugar and syrup in the state, and their names and post-office address may be found in this work, and any dealer or consumer ordering sugar or syrup from them will be sure to get that which is pure and free from adulteration.

The association owns and issues a protected label to its members upon their agreement, filed with the secretary, that they will only use it upon packages containing pure maple sugar or syrup, of standard quality, of their own manufacture, a copy of which label will be found in this work, and a purchaser of a package covered by this label may be assured of its purity. The improper or unauthorized use of this label or any adulteration of the products covered by the same will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law by the association.

QUALITY OF MAPLE SUGAR.

While it is true that the sugar product of the state has improved greatly within the past few years, it is also true that there is considerable of the product at the present time that does not show the improvements that have been noted. It is one of the rules of the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers’ Association that no member shall use the label of the association on goods of an inferior quality, and a member who does so use it is liable to be expelled from its membership; therefore, it is well to insist upon packages bearing this label, and customers are requested to report to the secretary of the society any case of receiving poor goods bearing this label. While it is the first object of the association to improve the quality of maple products, and increase the quantity now produced, which can easily be doubled, it recognizes as of the utmost importance that it should place before the consumers the knowledge which shall enable them to secure pure goods instead of an imitation product.

The fact that there is more of the spurious than of the genuine sold at the present time shows that there is chance for abundant work in that direction, and the officers of the association will always be glad to aid customers in placing their orders when requested so to do, as far as practicable, a medium of information between producer and customer in which it is hoped that each will receive an advantage.

Maple goods as put up in Vermont, are in three general classes. 1. The syrup or maple honey is put up and sealed in air-tight tin cans or in glass, the usual form being the gallon tin can either round or oblong and the syrup in these cans should weigh eleven pounds net to the gallon or about eleven and three-fourths pounds including can. Pure syrup varies to quite an extent in color. The first run of sap usually produces syrup of a lighter color than is produced later in the season. The color also depends upon the method used in collecting the sap and boiling it and, other things being equal, the less time that is allowed between the production of the sap and its conversion into syrup or sugar the whiter will be the product. Were it possible to convert sap to sugar without any lapse of time or exposure to the air the product would be perfectly white. There has been a suspicion among people who are familiar with Vermont maple products of the last generation that the present goods were not pure because so much whiter than formerly, but the change is due entirely to the improved and more rapid methods of manufacture.

PURE MAPLE SUGAR.

There is practically no adulteration of maple sugar in Vermont. The state has a stringent law on the subject and the maple sugar makers of the state will tolerate no infringement of its provisions, so that the customer can feel great security in ordering sugar or syrup of producers or dealers in the state, and can feel absolute security in ordering these goods of any of the members of the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers’ Association, bearing the label of the association. The name and post-office address of all the members of the association will be found in this booklet.

DIRECTIONS FOR THE CARE OF MAPLE SUGAR AND SYRUP.