Showing 361 – 370 of 378 resources

Update on the Maple Tubing Sanitation Research in Ontario

In the spring of 1998, a research project was initiated to develop alternative methods for maple produces using plastic tubing systems. Although the results are only preliminary, the development of alternative sanitation methods that may reduce reliance on chlorine is looking very promising.

Impact Of The 1998 Ice Storm On The Eastern Ontario Maple Syrup Industry: A Case Study Of Natural Disaster Policy In Canada

Under Canada’s Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA), the federal government can provide provinces with funds for emergency response and recovery in the event of a natural disaster. This assistance has historically been provided on an ad hoc basis. In recent years, the amount of DFAA assistance has significantly increased without any auditing to determine how effective and efficient these expenditures are in offsetting economic losses due to natural disasters. The goal of this paper is to examine the implications of natural disaster compensation and assistance programs for economic efficiency. A framework is developed to determine if government assistance expenditures have offset economic losses to a specific industry using a case study of the 1998 ice storm and the eastern Ontario maple syrup industry. Projections of damage recovery are used to measure the economic impact of the storm, and a comparison is then drawn between the change in producers’ welfare and government assistance. The implications of the findings for the case study and for future natural disaster assistance programs in Canada are discussed.

Effects Of The Use Of Paraformaldehyde (PFA) Sterilising Pellets On Sugar Maple Health: A Review

Higher and wider discoloration, compartmentalisation and decay in maple wood by the use of the PFA pellet restricts the healthy sapwood areas and diminishes translocation of sap and nutrients. Furthermore, technological advances for better sanitation in sap collection and storage presently in use by the maple industry, tested by research to be safe for maple tree health and syrup quality, have made the use of the PFA pellet unnecessary.

Vigor and Nutrition vs. Sap Sugar Concentration in Sugar Maples

Although maple dieback has received considerable recent attention in the Northeast, little has been reported about the relationship between sap sugar yield and crown health or crown nutrition. We measured sap sugar concentration (sweetness) in six northern Vermont maple stands in the springs of 1990-1992, and sap volume yield from tapholes at one stand in 1991. The stands differed in average crown dieback, canopy transparency, density, and mean dbh, as well as cation exchange capacity (CEC) of upper soil horizons.

Height-Diameter Relations of Maple Street Trees

Height and diameter measurements were taken for silver, sugar and Norway maple street trees in Rochester and Syracuse, New York.

“Salty” Syrup from Roadside Sugar Maples in Decline

We had two objectives in the study of sugar maples which showed signs of decline and stress on a roadside where deicing salt was used in the winter. One goal was to determine if tree stress is related to the levels offsodium and chloride in their sap and in the groundwater and soil around their roots; and, if so, to develop methodology approved by the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) that would allow any laboratory to use a standard method to assess maple tree decline due to sodium and chloride effect. The second goal was to evaluate the quality of the syrup processed from sap aseptically collected from maples in decline. We are updating here the later objective of the project that is of interest to the sugar maple producers.

Timing of defoliation and its effect on bud development, starch reserves, and sap sugar concentration in sugar maple

Sapling sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) trees were defoliated artificially at 10-day intervals beginning May 27 and ending August 5, 1981. Refoliation, terminal bud and shoot development, and xylem starch and sap sugar concentration were observed in defoliated and control trees. All defoliated trees refoliated, but decreasingly with later defoliation. Defoliation caused an acceleration in the rate of primordia initiation in terminal shoot apices. After early season defoliations, the developing buds in the axils of the removed leaves abscissed, but axillary and terminal buds on the refoliated terminal shoots survived through winter. In late season defoliation, most buds of refoliated shoots did not survive and the next year’s growth depended on axillary buds formed prior to defoliation. Thus, when progressing from early to late defoliations, the next year’s shoot growth depended decreasingly on the last-formed and increasingly on the first-formed portions of the previous year’s shoot. Early October starch concentration in xylem decreased with later defoliation and was nearly absent in shoots and roots of trees defoliated in late July. There was not, however, a corresponding decrease in sap sugar concentration. Mortality occurred only in late defoliated trees and was associated with starch depletion.

Bacterial Adhesion to Plastic Tubing Walls

The advent of plastic tubing systems to collect sap has eliminated several problems associated with the traditional bucket system. However, plastic tubing systems also present some problems of their own. Sap quality problems arise if the lines sag and the sap lingers within the tubings or the large conduits. In addition, the warming effect of the sun increases the tem perature within the tubing to optimum levels for microbial growth and sap flow may decrease because of “organic buildup” on the internal tubing walls. This buildup is a result of the adhesion of microorganisms to the tubing walls.