It is the maple family to which we are indebted for much of the glorious coloring of our autumn landscapes.
It is true that all trees play their part in the general color scheme, but for the brilliant reds and scarlets of the fall foliage we must look to the maples.
When we think of the word maple we are apt to have visions of other things besides trees. Maple and sugar or sirup seem to go together, and in fact some of us do not know that there are other maples besides the sugar maple.
This fine American tree is one of which we should be proud. Not only is it a handsome large tree, valuable for its shade and the beautiful colors it wears in the fall, but its wood is hard and valuable,—it is often called rock maple,—and besides all these good qualities it furnishes us with our maple sirup and sugar.
The process of making maple sugar is quite interesting and may be divided into two stages,—gathering the sap, and boiling down.
Very early in the spring, often as early as March, the sap begins to flow up through the tree. The farmer knows by experience when to tap the tree, which he does by boring a three-quarter inch hole with an auger. Into this hole he inserts a spout of wood or iron through which the lifeblood of the tree—the sap—flows in a steady drip, drip, drip, into a pail or bucket placed beneath to catch it.
The sap comes in drops about as regularly as the ticks of a clock, one a second. This continues for two or three weeks, until each tree has yielded something like twenty-five gallons. As it takes five gallons of sap to produce a pound of sugar, each tree yields about five pounds of maple sugar. In New England and New York there are maple groves containing thousands of trees, and one farm alone produces five thousand pounds of sugar in a season.
Strange as it may seem, this excessive bleeding of the trees does not kill them unless improperly done. The farmer must not tap them at the wrong time nor in too many places. The tree will stand a great deal if properly treated, but harsh treatment will kill it.
The boiling process is very simple. The sap is poured into large boilers or evaporators and boiled until it becomes a sirup. The old-fashioned test to find out when the boiling had been carried on long enough was to drop a little of the hot sirup into the snow or into a cold dish. If it hardened, the boiling was finished.
Fig. 90 shows the leaf of the sugar maple, also that leaf which is most often confounded with it, viz., the Norway maple. Observe the two closely. The sugar maple has blunt, rounded points and is thick, while the Norway has sharp points, which are more numerous, and the leaf is much thinner and more delicate.
Fig. 90.
Sugar Maple Norway Maple
The sugar maple grows taller and does not cast so dense a shade as the Norway, which is a low-growing tree with close, dark foliage.
35. The Silver Maple. The one which naturally comes next in the list is the silver, soft, or white maple, as it is variously termed. From the ground up to the topmost leaf the whole character of this tree suggests the word thoroughbred. Clean-cut, refined, strong, and healthy in every detail, the silver maple is a thing of beauty and might truly be called the acme of perfection in tree life. Its name is derived from the fact that the under side of the leaf is silvery white. The upper side being dark green gives a beautiful effect when the wind stirs the foliage, which as a whole has the grace and drooping effect of the American elm.
Fig. 91.
The Silver Maple The Red Maple
This description does not always fit, however, as it is planted extensively in cities where horses gnaw the fine bark; smoke, soot, and coal gas discolor the leaves; and the caterpillars complete the work of destroying its beauty. Yet it still lives, even if it does not thrive under such harsh treatment. Its wood is white, soft, and not very valuable.
36. The Red Maple. A relative of the silver maple and one which might be mistaken for it is the red, swamp, or wild maple. It is this tree which displays the brightest reds in autumn. Referring to the sketch it will be seen that the leaf is smaller and three-fingered instead of five, as in the silver variety. The stem of this leaf is also red during the entire season, as if it could not wait for autumn.
Fig. 92. The Sycamore Maple
37. The Sycamore Maple. In the rows on rows of maples so common in our towns and cities one will often find a leaf larger, heavier, and coarser than any of the others. This variety, like the Norway, is an importation from Europe, known as the sycamore maple because of its resemblance to the sycamore leaf. It is easily identified by its large size, coarseness, the very long, thick red stem, and by the fact that its entire edge is finely toothed,—in which point it differs from all the foregoing varieties. Its value as a shade tree is nearly equal to the Norway, and in Europe it is often planted in preference to all other maples.
38. The Striped Maple. Growing in the shade of other trees and forming part of the undergrowth of our North woods is a small tree known as the striped maple, from the stripes which run up and down its bark. The New England name for this little mountain tree is moosewood, from the fact that the moose is very fond of the bark and twigs, which form his chief food in winter. The leaves are quite large, but very thin, soft, and delicate.
Fig. 93. The Striped Maple, or Moosewood
39. Maple Keys. The fruit, or seeds, of all the maples are known as winged. The flat, thin part gives the seed a swirling motion as it drops from the tree. This is the way nature has of spreading the seed over a large area so that more trees may be started in life. Many tree seeds are winged, but the maple seed or key is so large and so common that every one must at some time have noticed it.
Fig. 94. Maple “Keys,” a Common Form of Winged Seeds
40. The Ash-Leaved Maple. The ash-leaved maple is a leaf very common in our parks. It has no resemblance to other maple leaves, yet it bears the unmistakable maple key,—“By their fruits ye shall know them.” It is therefore a maple.
The box elder, or ash-leaved maple, is interesting because it is our only maple having a compound leaf; that is, a leaf stem with several distinct leaflets. Compound leaves are very common (notice the hickory leaf and the horse-chestnut), but not on maples, and our ash-leaved maple is a curiosity. It delights in swampy places, but grows almost anywhere. It is a small tree, and its wood is not especially valuable except for making paper pulp.
North America has only nine varieties of maple, while China and Japan have more than thirty. Indeed, it is to Japan, whose forests are largely made up of maples, that we are indebted for some of the most dainty and exquisite trees to be found. The Japan maples planted so extensively on our lawns and in our parks have such a variety of form and color that no written description can do them justice. Fig. 96 will give some idea of their shape and delicacy. The colors, which of course cannot be shown, range from dark purple to the most delicate combinations of white and green. The finest of these dainty leaves bears a stronger resemblance to an ostrich plume than to anything in the line of tree leaves.
Fig. 95. Ash-Leaved Maple, or Box Elder
Fig. 96. Japan Maples