Concord, NH (AP)  -- The numbers are coming in strong for New Hampshire's maple syrup season -- especially in the southern part of the state.

"This season was awesome. We made three times the syrup we made last year," said David Wheeler, of Milford, who runs close to 1,000 taps and about 165 buckets throughout the Souhegan Valley. "It was the best season in my memory."

Peter Thomson, head of the New Hampshire Maple Producers Association, said he expects statewide production will top 100,000 gallons. That's the best production in at least four years and up from 60,000 gallons in 2007.

By comparison, Maine is the nation's No. 2 syrup producer, with 225,000 gallons last year.

Maple syrup only generates about $3 million annually in business in New Hampshire, but tourists expect to see local syrup on the shelves, say producers.

The state's biggest syrup-producing region, around Keene, saw a particularly fine season. Thomson said the Clark family farm in Alstead produced more syrup than in 75 years of record keeping.

Producers are crediting the weather. February and March had long stretches of cold nights and warm days, the combination that drives sap up and down the tree, so that it can flow out of taps.

Producers are also celebrating higher prices, up as much as 50 percent, to better than $35 a gallon. The increase is largely because a growing appetite for maple syrup from new markets, such as Asia, has used up a huge surplus from past years in Quebec, which generates about three-quarters of the world's syrup.