Maple Leaf Rag to its publication, Joplin anticipated that the piece would be a success—he told Arthur Marshall that "The Maple Leaf will make me the king of ragtime composers". The exact circumstances which led to publication of the "Maple Leaf Rag" are unknown, and there are versions of the event which contradict each other. After approaching several publishers, Joplin signed a contract with John Stillwell Stark on August 10, 1899 for a $0.01 royalty on all sales of the rag, with a minimum sales price of $0.25. The "Maple Leaf Rag" was published between August 10 and September 20, 1899, when the
Maple leaf the Canadian flag (suggested by George F. G. Stanley and sponsored by M.P. John Matheson) in 1965, which uses a highly stylized eleven-pointed maple leaf, referring to no specific species of maple. Earlier official uses of a maple leaf design often used more than 30 points and a short stem. The one chosen is a generic maple leaf representing the ten species of maple tree native to Canada—at least one of these species grows natively in every province. The maple leaf is currently used on the Canadian flag, logos of various Canadian-based companies (including Canadian subsidiaries of foreign companies and