MONTPELIER, Vt. — The United States and Canada produced record amounts of maple syrup this year, thanks to the weather and more people getting into the business or expanding their operations.

U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics show the U.S. produced 4.2 million gallons, the greatest amount since record-keeping began in 1916.

Vermont is by far the country’s largest producer of maple syrup. The state yielded 1.9 million gallons this year, beating the previous record of 1.48 million gallons set in 2013, according to Henry Marckres, the maple specialist at the Vermont agency of agriculture.

Vermont also had a tremendous increase in the number of taps in trees, which has jumped from around 1 million about 15 years ago to nearly 5 million now, Marckres said.

“Because the price has been good and stable, we’ve had many more people get into the business. Others expand,” Marckres said. “The price, while it went down a little bit this year for bulk syrup, it didn’t go down a lot, and the markets seem really strong so I’m in hopes that there will be a home for everything that’s produced.”

Maple syrup retails for an average of about $48 to $52 per gallon, and Marckres doesn’t expect the record quantity of syrup produced to affect prices.

In terms of syrup produced, New York was second with 707,000 gallons, followed by Maine, Wisconsin and New Hampshire.