The Rural Voice, 1998-10, Page 37•
damage in his maple orchard but
extreme damage in his maple bush.
Hubbs said he thought the angle of
the branches was probably the
biggest difference and that pruning
would help this.
After the severe first-year
pruning, Hubbs prunes the'
tree about every second year.
He aims to take out smaller limbs
that are growing in clusters and to
prune off lower limbs. "You want to
have a trunk there (in a mature tree) a
minimum of 10 feet high before you
get to your lowest limb."
He has set a goal of 12 feet
in his orchard.
As a rule of thumb they
try to leave half the height
of the tree in crown.
Hubbs chose the very
best land he had on the
farm for his orchard. "I
think that's been a bonus to
help get the orchard started.
Anybody considering either
a line planting or a block
planting, I'd say pick the
very best land you can
spare. The better the land
the better the trees are
going to respond to it."
When the word orchard comes up
most people think of a block planting
but as far as the maple orchard
committee is concerned, as much
emphasis is put on line planting
(along fencerows or property lines).
"If a line planting fits into your
operation more than a block planting
then go ahead and do it," Hubbs
advised.
(Chapeskie says with line planting
it might be possible to space the trees
far enough apart to allow
intercropping with other crops to
continue to have some short-term
income off the land while the trees
grow. Since maples have shallow
roots, however, choosing the right
kind of crop and the right kind of
cultivation would be important.)
Even though it will be years
before the trees produce their first
maple syrup, Hubbs says there have
already been rewards.
"We discovered very early that we
had good feelings about it — we felt
we were doing the right thing." He
also jokes that he always wanted a
house in the woods and now that he's
planted a woods around the house, he
realizing his dream.
The orchard has been used as a
demonstration site and educational
site by several groups. The
neighbours arc now starting to
consider the project more seriously as
the trees grow.
A direct financial benefit has
come from the advertising the new
planting has been for their current
maple syrup business. Customers see
the Hubbs family having a Tong -term
commitment to the maple syrup
business, he says.
While it can take
Maple plantings can
be in blocks or rows.
20 to 30 years for trees to
reach the 10 inch -diameter
needed to be tapped, the
rewards can be harvested
for the next 80-100 years in
the form of Targe volumes
of sweet sap, Chapeskie
says in a handout provided
at the conference. The
projections are based on
existing demonstration
orchards located both at
Ontario's Agricultural
colleges and on private
land.
And orchards allow
maple syrup producers to
enlarge their operations, something
that another speaker, Ray Fortune
pointed out can be important in the
economics of syrup production.
Fortune, a retired high tech
engineer, has been producing maple
syrup since 1972, (he retired to thc
farm in 1992) but began a study of
the economics of the business after
forming a partnership with his son in
1995 and deciding it was time to sit
down and see what was really going
on in the business.
"We seemed to be spending a lot
of time on it but not making a lot of
money," Fortune says.
He was shocked to find that his
investment in pipelines and
other aspects of the bush
operation was as high as that in the
evaporator and other sugar camp
buildings. In 1996 he decided to
insure the pipeline, a move that paid
quick dividends when a tornado went
through the bush in 1997 and again
this year when the pipelines were
destroyed by the ice storm that hit
eastern Ontario.
Early decisions such as buying thc
farm and starting to produce syrup
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OCTOBER 1998 33