Now as the sap has commenced running our guest will soon realize that the whole proposition and output depends strictly on the weather conditions. A shift of the wind; a change in temperature or humidity and especially a change of barometer pressure, which is the actual force behind a rapid flow of sap, may turn a big sap day into a complete fiasco and perhaps the often reoccurrence, a whole season, and thus the competent sugar maker with his $30 per month and board “help” and $4.00 per day teams may be quite out of pocket at the end of the season for no cause of his own, even though he obtain $1.50 per gallon for his canned syrup; but then he may charge all this up in his profit and loss account along with his products of milk and cream for the city contractor often backing up the latter with a mortgage on his farm the grain, help and imposed conditions account that the mill may go around by day and year. [Illustration: MAPLE GROVE IN EARLY SPRING.] Has it ever occurred to the city consumer that the modern dairy building and apparatus so glibly demanded will cost from $3,000 to $5,000 according to locality, for a herd of 25 cows often more than the whole farm does sell for at auction after such improvement has been added. And this holds good as to the sugar output; $1,000 goes a short way for a 2,500 tree establishment and it is the many full buckets that count against short runs, rather than a smaller number with less initial expense. Moreover it should be borne in mind by the town consumer that the farm price demanded has never been exorbitant for any product and that for at least a quarter of a century has ruled so dangerously low that no other business or calling that did not have its habitation and crude food products included in the output would have stood up to it for a season; but then, there is the middleman who is often a needless or exaggerated adjunct that in many lines has become an avaricious parasite to legitimate business—but that is another story and our city friends can help us solve that after they have canvassed the situation by actual contact, and with benefit to themselves. PRESENT STATUS OF THE INDUSTRY. BY DR. HARVEY W. WILEY. (_From the Government Bulletin._) Development of Present Conditions.