SKOWHEGAN (AP) – The cold spring is being blamed for this year’s decline in maple syrup production in Maine and across New England.

Maple syrup producers in Maine boiled up 265,000 gallons of syrup in 2005, a 9 percent drop from last year. Maine is the nation’s No. 2 syrup-producing state, behind Vermont.

Syrup production was down 31 percent in New Hampshire, 18 percent in Vermont, and 13 percent in New York, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s New England Agricultural Statistics office. Syrup production fell by 20 percent in Massachusetts and 9 percent in Connecticut.

Nationally, syrup production fell 18 percent to 1.24 million gallons from 2004.

Aubrey R. Davis, director of the regional statistics service, said that every New England state reported the same thing: The season produced good-quality syrup, but it was too short.

“The season started late because it was too cold and then warmed up too fast,” he said.

Jeremy Steeves of Skowhegan, who taps 10,000 trees in Somerset County, said the cold slowed the sugar maple’s natural process of moving the sap up and down the trees.

Many large commercial producers are putting in vacuum systems that pull the sap from the trees when conditions aren’t ideal, rather than waiting for it to drip, he said.

“It pays for itself rather quickly,” he said, “because it can increase your yield by 50 to 100 percent.”

Although production was down, the syrup had a higher sugar content than last year, resulting in a sweeter product, Davis said.

Prices were up around the country, but not in northern New England.

The national 2004 average price per gallon was $28.40, up 10 cents. But the price dropped $3.10 in Maine to $19.40.

The price of syrup fell $7.60 a gallon to $35.40 in New Hampshire, and by 50 cents a gallon to $27.30 in Vermont.

Only one state, Pennsylvania, showed an increase in syrup production in 2005 over 2004, according to the Department of Agriculture. Production decreased by 50 percent in Wisconsin, 27 percent in Michigan and 12 percent in Ohio.