Maple Sugaring in New Hampshire is a photographic history depicting the process, equipment, structures, and social aspects of maple sugaring from the 1700s to the present day. Maple products are made almost exclusively in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada, where sugar maples thrive and the climate is conducive to good sap runs. Native Americans used sap, or "sweet water," for drinking and cooking, and they used maple sugar for bartering. Early settlers consumed large quantities of the sugar when other food was scarce and traded their surplus as a means of economic survival.