The Conference on Maple Products began in 1950 under the guidance of Dr. Charles O. Willits and with the support of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Eastern Regional Research Laboratory. At this time the maple industry was coming out of a bit of a post-war slump and there were no national or international maple syrup organizations or annual meetings. Some individual states and provinces had organized maple associations with annual meetings that occasionally brought researchers, producers, and industry representatives together but the industry as a whole was largely unorganized.
The Eastern Regional Research Laboratory opened in 1939 in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, a suburb or Philadelphia. With a newly completed doctorate in analytical chemistry, Charles O. Willits was one of the first researchers to come on board at the laboratory. Being concerned with the decline of the maple industry at that time, Willits and a collection of his colleagues at the lab proposed a long-term program of research to examine and improve the production and utilization of maple products. Willits also recognized the equal importance of making their research results known and applicable to the maple industry.
The Conference on Maple Products was envisioned as a place to present and report on current research of the laboratory as well as the work of other government and academic research units and industry representatives in a face-to-face manner with stakeholders and leaders of the maple industry and encourage dialogue and discussion. Held every three years, there were eight gatherings in total, with the first seven in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania near the Eastern Regional Research Laboratory and the last meeting in Boyne Falls, Michigan in conjunction with the National Maple Syrup Council.
C.O. Willits retired from the Eastern Laboratory in 1969 and with him, the maple products research program at the Eastern laboratory gradually wound down. Without their leader and with the newer National Maple Syrup Council (to later become the North American Maple Syrup Council) supporting research, regular conferences, and face to face meetings; the tri-annual Conference on Maple Products held its land meeting in 1971.
Fortunately, the proceedings for all eight meetings are well preserved and can be viewed as PDF documents online. These proceedings contain an interesting collection of reports presented at the meetings and in some cases the transcripts of the discussions that followed. Presentations were from across the maple industry, including updates from the packing industry, policy makers, new technology, historical summaries, and new and developing research. You can find these conference proceedings at the following links on www.archive.org.
Conference on Maple Products – November 1950
Second Conference on Maple Products – November 1953
Third Conference on Maple Products – October 1956
Fourth Conference on Maple Products – October 1959
Fifth Conference on Maple Products – October 1962
Sixth Conference on Maple Products – October 1965
Seventh Conference on Maple Products – October 1968
Eight Conference on Maple Products – October 1971