A history of Vermont's maple sugar industry

by Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association

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.

LARGE MAPLE SUGAR CAMP IN CENTRAL VERMONT.

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.