Working on a story about back-to-back Maple Weekends provided a lot of interesting statistics about a state industry that produces one-sixth of the nation’s maple syrup. New York is the third-largest producer behind Vermont and Maine, according to a release from the Catskill Region Maple Producers Association.

In 2006, about 1,500 maple-syrup producers made more than 253,000 gallons of syrup, according to the statistics cited by the state Agricultural Statistics Service. That was an increase of 14 percent from 2005.

More information about the 2007 weekends that continue Saturday and Sunday is available at www.nysmaple.com.

About 120 maple producers statewide will be participating, with 16 in the Catskill region.

It takes 40 gallons of raw sap to make one gallon of maple syrup, said Dwayne Hill, president of the New York State Maple Producers Association and an owner of participating Shaver-Hill Farms in Harpersfield. A producer should get 10-15 gallons per hole in a tree on an average year, he said.

In general, he can put two holes in a tree, depending on the tree’s size. He taps about 7,000 maple trees.

Also participating is Baker’s Maple Products in Bainbridge. Evelyn Baker said that the business has about 4,500 taps in about 2,000 trees.

For sap to be running, she said, it has to be below freezing at night and get into the mid-40s during the day.

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Volunteers across the state went to second-grade classrooms to talk about the importance of farms and farmers on Agricultural Literacy Day.

But readers came to classes all through the week, which coincided with national agriculture events so the greatest number of students could be reached, officials said.

"As more of our society becomes further removed from the farm, events like Agriculture Literacy Day become more important," said state Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker, in a media release. He was one of those who read the book "Lily’s Garden" by Deborah Kogan Ray for the event.

In his case, he read at his children’s school, Mount Markham Central in West Winfield.

The event is "an excellent example of how the agricultural industry is working together to re-establish the understanding and appreciation for the food and services farmers provide for our local communities," he said.

New York agriculture encompasses 25 percent of the state’s landscape and generated $3.6 billion for the state’s economy last year. Currently, New York has 35,000 farms with 7.5 million acres, according to the release.

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It was hard to tell whether the latest newsletter for a nonprofit organization, The Alliance for Excellent Education, made a mistake in its table of contents. The group seeks to improve education for all children.

On an article discussing hearings about reauthorizing the federal No Child Left Behind Program, the headline was "No Committee Left Behind."

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In discussing Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand’s efforts to get farmers a better price for milk, Bovina Center farmer Randy Inman said the congresswoman is heading in the right direction.

But "the whole pricing structure is broken," he said, and there needs to be a system that pays farmers fairly. Instead, with Class I prices being about $15 a hundredweight and farmers getting several dollars less when all costs are deducted, the cost of production is at least $17 a hundredweight, he said. This is an increase of at least $2 from last year. Most farmers have to resort to borrowing money to make up the shortfall, he said.

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Staff Writer Mark Boshnack covers public education and agriculture.