We've spent a large portion of the last few classes discussing the major industries in the Adirondack Park, including logging, mining, tourism, and agriculture (though the whole farming thing didn't work all that well), but we haven't mentioned maple sugaring. Maple sugaring, the process of making maple syrup (everyone's favorite sugar!), while not a major source of revenue in the Adirondacks, does have a long tradition and history within what is now the park.
Legend has it that one early Spring day, Iroquois Chief Woksis threw a tomahawk into a maple tree, and when he came to collect it the next day, it was covered in sap and the sap had dripped into a container that was near the tree. When Chief Woksis' wife took the container to collect water from a nearby river, she noticed that the container seemed to have something in it. She then tasted the mysterious substance, which happened to be sweet, so she decided to cook with it, boiling it down to syrup, and beginning the Adirondack tradition of maple sugaring.
Traditionally, sap collection was done by "tapping" a tree. "Tapping" involves drilling a hole into the tree for the metal tap to sit in, allowing the sap to flow from the tree, down the tap and into a collection bucket. Abbot August (A.A.) Low helped to revolutionize maple sugaring by developing a system of pipes and troughs to transport sap. Instead of the traditional sap collection buckets, pipes were used to transport sap to tubs near railroads, so the sap could be loaded onto tanks on flatcars and transported to be boiled. A.A. Low, James H. Hill, and John Rivett further revolutionized maple sugaring by developing a system in which sap enters on one side of a sugar house, then moves through steam heated evaporators to be boiled, and ultimately comes out the other end of the building as syrup.
Today, sap collection is still done in a similar manner. A network of plastic tubes transports the sap to a sugar house, where the maple syrup is produced by various means of evaporation. Most kinds of maple trees have sap with a sugar content of 2% or less, so an average of 43 gallons of sap are needed to make 1 gallon of maple syrup with a 66-67% sugar content (42 of those gallons are boiled off). Many sugar houses still use the basic wood-fired evaporator system in which sap is transported into an evaporator pan over a fire, which boils the sap down until it has the proper sugar content.
Many in the Adirondacks still continue the tradition of maple sugaring. In addition to the privately owned and operated sugar bushes, the Cornell Sugar Maple Research and Extension Program currently operates a facility in the High Peaks which is dedicated to providing maple sugaring information for the general public, activities for schools, research projects, and field stations for further research. Also in the Adirondacks is the American Maple Museum. Located in the western Adirondack town of Croghan, the museum houses exhibits that educate visitors through events and seasonal demonstrations that are dedicated to preserving the history and art of maple sugaring.
Sources:
http://www.adkmuseum.org/about_us/adirondack_journal/?id=140
http://visitadirondacks.com/attractions/maple-sugaring-the-adirondacks
http://www.adirondack.net/things-to-do/maple/
https://www.wildcenter.org/tap
http://www.adkmuseum.org/about_us/adirondack_journal/?id=193
http://maple.dnr.cornell.edu
Do you think sugaring will continue to be a profitable source of income in the dirondacks in the coming future? Or do you think traditional maple sugaring will fall to the efficiency of larger companies in other parts of the east coast, as have so many other types of farming? Do larger operations have a hold on the national and global market for maple syrup so smaller farms don't even stand a chance?
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