The first step is figuring out how much sap can be extracted from the average birch tree in the Northeast using modern practices, she said.

WSJ: Birch syrup explored as add-on to maple industry

Developers are clearing an average of 50 acres of tree-covered land per day, which amounts to an area larger than Manhattan each year.

CNN: Atlanta

Tests running at two big sawmills, in Europe and in America, suggest that the improvement in yield can run from 2% to 18% for different kinds of tree, with an average gain of 10% in the value of the timber produced from a log.

ECONOMIST: Chopping wood

Andrew Rettie, secretary of the Scottish Games Association, the body which decides the length of the tree trunk used in tossing the caber, says that the average Highland games attracts a mere 3, 000-4, 000 people.

ECONOMIST: Tossing away the caber | The

Father Christmas and the Christmas tree, the inventions of Nordic pagans, did not enter the average home until the end of the 19th century, but are now well established.

ECONOMIST: Spoil the French and spare the Child