her business interest or enthusiasm can be replaced. In selecting the recipient of the Woman In Agriculture Award, empha—

sis was placed on the contribution to the farming community within the past five years. For this reason, Frances was not chosen, she was ahead

of her time!

Maple Syrup Time

Adelaide and Bobs Wood had always tapped trees each spring in the grove behind their house. This hobby became a small business venture when they retired in 1971 from teaching and farming. The following story from the Island Farmer tells about this venture:

Adelaide Wood looks out the window into the bush out back. The sun is beginning to warm the frosted branches of the trees, and soon it will be time to get to work “The best kind of day for maple syrup is afier a frost, ”explains her husband Raymond, Bobs. “Ifthe sun gets really hot after a frost there is plenty of volume and the sap will drip. We only get 20% of the flow, so I don’t think we hurt the tree any. ”

Mr. Wood is a retired farmer in Albany, and he and his wife spend a lot of time in their maple bush. They thin their seven acres, support bent saplings, and only tap trees which have a diameter of about 8”. It sometimes takes 50 years to reach this size.

However, this is a young bush, with plenty of potential, so Rayde and Adelaide are keeping up with the new methods of tapping. For instance, about 150 trees are fed into a network of tubes which feed into a 300 gallon holding

" ' - tank. There is no problem with collect- ing the sap.

Since this system works on the princi- ple of gravity feed, it is only practical on downhill runs. Therefore there are another 100 or so trees which are being tapped with the con- ventional spout and pail. This requires constant attention, and a bit of legwork, but that suits the Wood family all ~ . . right. They look for- Raymond Wood collecting sap. Adelaide Wood collection. ward to the two 01'

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