Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 89, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1915 — Maple Sugar. [ARTICLE]

Maple Sugar.

The niaple trees of the nation produce 4 7,000,000 pounds of niaple sugar annually-:—about half a pound lor each person. And the demand for the product, it is estimated, is ten times greater than the supply. Despite this fact, statistics show that less than half of the trees available for the purpose ape utilized. This means that a good many farmers throughout the country—and Indiana is no exception to the rule—-are neglecting to take advantage or an important source of income. The season for sugar-making is at h.imi. ami the farmer might note that i' c omes at a time when there is little other work to claim his attention. lie might take this into consideration. too, as he adds young trees from time to time to his woodlot. Convinced now, as most farmers are, on he value of the wood lot, it ought to he only a short step further to tlio realization that, by judicious selection of varieties of trees planted, it can be made to yield a revenue both in spring and in autumn. A combination of sugar maples and nut trees would produce the desired result and he worth more in the long run then the plantation set out for the sole purpose of producting fence .posts.

Sciepce lias turned its inquisitorial eye more than once on the sugar tree, but, So far, has failed to solve Its mystery. Investigation has merely recorded certain facts; it has not explained them. It is known, for instance, that the sugar maple is far more particular than the uninitiated suspect. For its sap to flow, nights must be cool, clear and still, with the temperature at least 10 degrees below freezing: the days must he warm and sunny, with the temperature rising to TO degrees above freezing, and, finally, there must be a fall of rain or of snow after four or five successive ' days of such weather or the sap will cease to flow. Hut there is hardly inore of a mystery here than there is in the 'act that the farmer who has the trees to tap tails to tan them. He needs no demonstration to prove to him that the weather Conditions favorable for the flow of sugar sap are favorable tor little work about the farm. And he needs, surely, no reminder that an eager and profitable market awaits the product. Why, then, only half the product available is collected and why half of this natural resource is wasted is perplexing to Jthe ordinary mind.-—ln-dianapolis News.

A member of the Big Stove Club of Bath, Me., told the following experience with a sea serpent. He was at the wheel of his little -fishing schooner in Long, Island sound, when he heard a swishing sound behind his vessel. Peering behind he could just make out the long sinuous body m a sea serpent with an enormous head and a pair of flashing eyes. The serpent, however, kept its distance. The next morning the sailor found that a rope from a schooner had become entangled in a lobster trap and had towed it up the sound.

A fellow in this town ate German noodle soup and French, fried potatoes yesterday, and now he can’t understand the war that is raging in his stomach.