The biggest sugar maple.This ancient New Englander maintains its venerable demeanor despite bugs, lightning, and "roadkill road·kill n. 1. An animal or animals killed by being struck by a motor vehicle. 2. Slang One that has failed or been defeated and is no longer worthy of consideration: ." "Stick to the maple and so long as the maple forests stand, suffer not your cup to be sweetened sweet·en v. sweet·ened, sweet·en·ing, sweet·ens v.tr. 1. To make sweet or sweeter by adding sugar, honey, saccharin, or another sweet substance. 2. To make more pleasant or agreeable. by the blood of slaves!" Thus did an 1844 Vermont almanac almanac, originally, a calendar with notations of astronomical and other data. Almanacs have been known in simple form almost since the invention of writing, for they served to record religious feasts, seasonal changes, and the like. entreat en·treat also in·treat v. en·treat·ed, en·treat·ing, en·treats v.tr. 1. To make an earnest request of. 2. To ask for earnestly; petition for. 3. its readers to boycott West Indies white sugar, made by slaves, in favor of maple sugar created by the hands of New England farmers. For 200 years America's primary sweetener Sweetener A special feature added to a debt obligation or preferred stock to promote marketability. Notes: Warrants and convertibles are two popular sweeteners. See also: Convertible Bond, Kicker, Warrant Sweetener had come from the sugar maple, imported cane sugar cane sugar: see sucrose. being too costly. Early colonists learned to make maple sugar from the American Natives, who used birchbark buckets and hollowed out sumac twigs to collect the sap. Lacking containers that would withstand fire, the Indians condensed con·dense v. con·densed, con·dens·ing, con·dens·es v.tr. 1. To reduce the volume or compass of. 2. To make more concise; abridge or shorten. 3. Physics a. the sap to syrup or sugar by adding heated rocks or letting the water separate by freezing overnight. Today the maple-syrup industry depends on people who, like myself, wouldn't dream of using anything else. Under normal conditions, a good sugar maple yields up to 40 gallons of watery sap, or about one gallon of syrup or eight pounds of sugar each season. But in 1988 the nightmare of a future with only the imitation variety to pour on one's pancakes loomed large. An outbreak of the pear thrips caused the defoliation of a half million acres of maple forest in Vermont. This introduced pest, not much bigger than a comma on this page, bores into the buds where the tender, folded leaves are vulnerable. Fortunately, the outbreak proved to be an erratic occurrence, but the threat remains, especially if drought or some other stress is added.
COMMON NAME Sugar maple
SCIENTIFIC NAME Acer saccharum
LOCATION Norwich, CT
NOMINATORS William Linke & Glenn Dreyer
OWNER CT Dept. of Transportation or
Sheraton Motor Inn
(tree is in rock wall fence)
MOST RECENT MEASUREMENT 1984
CIRCUMFERENCE AT 4 1/2 FEET 269 in.
HEIGHT 93 ft.
CROWN SPREAD 80 ft.
TOTAL POINTS 382
The champion sugar maple escaped the 1988 thrips thrips, minute, agile insects of the order Thysanoptera. Thrips have piercing-and-sucking mouthparts and cup-shaped feet from which bladderlike adhesive organs may be extended. Some species are wingless, but many have four narrow, featherlike wings fringed with hairs. attack, only to be damaged by lightning at about the same time. Already weakened from root damage caused by nearby road construction, the old champ's days are probably numbered. Until then, may its sap run long and sweet. The National Registry of Big Trees is sponsored by the Davey Tree Expert Company. |
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