Old Tubing - Guess Its Age

[TapTapTap]

Can anyone guess the age of this tubing? It is marked U.S. MAPLE INC 88.

Also found some opaque brown stuff which is very brittle. all lines hook to a black main. I'm trying to figure out when the trees were last tapped. It It seems at least 10 years and maybe 20 years old. The sugar house is long gone but the tubing might have been associated with just a sap collection system.

thx

Ken15779

[TapTapTap]

In case you are interested, I came across this old photo from a blog that is very similar to the brown tubing. The 2012 blog is about sugaring around 1981.

http://obsballona.net/wordpress/2012/12/23/maple-syrup-production-circa-1981/saptubing-2-2/

It is believable that my trees were last tapped in the early 80's when you look at how healed over this tap is:
15784

[Atgreene]

We used miles of the US maple green stuff back in the early 80's. We've saved some pieces . We also have some from the 50's. The green us maple stretched terribly. We'd lay out a few hundred feet, then go back and take out feet upon feet.

[BAP]

We used miles of the US maple green stuff back in the early 80's. We've saved some pieces . We also have some from the 50's. The green us maple stretched terribly. We'd lay out a few hundred feet, then go back and take out feet upon feet.
And after it stretched more and more it became almost impossible to get fittings put in to make repairs. The worst was the US Maple ribbed tubing. It became brick hard over time.

[TapTapTap]

Thanks for the responses. I guess it's safe to say that my "new" trees have not been tapped for multiple decades.

[Russell Lampron]

The worst was the US Maple ribbed tubing. It became brick hard over time.

Was that the purple stuff? I had a brand new roll of purple ribbed tubing given to me when I first started sugaring in 2001. Not knowing any better I used it. A year later and you could break it in half. Now I know why it was free.

[BAP]

I believe all of the US Maple was green. The purple was probably Lamb.

[n8hutch]

I have some tubing like that in a bush that I am tapping, mine was last tapped in 1994, I also have some that looks brown like that too but if you follow it long enough it is green US Maple tubing Alstead NH. Some taps are completely Heald over and others you can twist out of the tree, mighty big holes.also all the fittings I have seen have 3 barbs vs the 2 on new ones.