A history of Vermont's maple sugar industry

by Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association

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.