A history of Vermont's maple sugar industry

Of all the trees of the forest the maple was the most valuable to the early settlers. Its wood furnished the best fuel for their greedy fireplaces. Also in the early days a considerable income was derived from the burning of charcoal, and the maple made the best of material for this. But even more than for all these purposes it lost its life in the manufacture of potash. Not alone was the settlers’ great iron kettles used for boiling down the sap of the maple into sugar, but were principally used for boiling down the lye leached from wood ashes into potash thus deriving a large income, although it resulted in the same old story of killing the goose that laid the golden egg. But alas! Not alone did the people of years gone by destroy and lay waste our maple groves. The maple worm for several years stripped our trees of their foliage, and bid fair to make sugaring a thing of the past. But worst of all at the present time are the veneer mills, which pay large prices for maple logs. And unless some means be found to induce the farmer to spare his maple grove, the maple Sugar industry of Vermont, like the Indian Brave who roamed at will beneath their shade will have passed from among us.