On the jfmermn Sugar Mtipk. 305 



Ch'iXen Michau, nurfcryman at Charles Town, has a confiderable quantity near the 

 banks of the Ohio in the ftate of Virginia, beyond the Apalachian mountains. They 

 were planted in a good foil. In this country the maples have fuch a growth, that, if the 

 author of the American Geography may be credited, fycamores are to be met with forty- 

 four /ect in circumference *. 



The Canadians have long been accuftomed to ufe the juice of the maple as a refrefliing 

 beverage. When it ifTues out of the tree it is clear, whitifli, and of a cool faccharine tafte. 

 By expofure to the fun in fummeJr, it is converted into good vinegar. It is obtained by 

 boring the trunk of the tree, .taking care to dire£l tlie inftrument upwards. The blade of 

 a knife, or a piece of thin wood in the form of a ruler, is inferted to conduft the fluid to 

 a veflcl placed beneath for its reception : without this precaution, it would flow down the 

 bark of the tree and be loft. A'lr. Gaultier obferves, that the perforation muft be made 

 into the proper ligneous circles, and that the faccharine juice is flot to be obtained by making 

 incifions in the middle bark or the liber, or at leaft that the quantity obtained will be very 

 fmall. At the commencement of the thaws the fap flows abundantly for about three 

 weeks; after which it thickens and entirely flops. The maples afibrd more fap the greater 

 the quantity of fnow has been, and the more rigorous the winter. The moft favourable 

 period is when the fnow begins to melt, and the cold weather ftill continues. The flow is 

 confiderable in the fprlng, when the thaws are great and decided. The colder the nightsi 

 die greater the quantity of fap which flows on the following day. It feldom flows during 

 the night, unlefs the weather be mild. If thefe obfervations had been made in all parts 

 where there are fugar maples, they would afford reafon to conclude, that the regular alter- 

 nation of great cold during the night and very perceptible heat during the day-time, which 

 takes place in the northern parts of America, contributes to elaborate the fap of the maple 

 and render it fweet. 



The juice of the maple is colle£l:ed earlier or later according to the country. In the 

 vicinity of Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal, it lafts from the middle of March to- 

 the middle of May, when the fun begins to have power ; but near Lake Champlain it is 

 collected from the middle of February to the early part of March. In this country the 

 thaws commence about the end of January. 



If we give credit to Mr. Gaultier, the French taught the favages to extradl fugar froni 

 the fap of the maple ; but if we depend on Kalm, the favages knew this art before the 

 Europeans had difcovered America, and the latter people have only followed the pradlice 

 - of the favages. Whatever may be the value of thefe two unfupported afl^ertions, it is 

 certain, that in order to extraft this fugar the liquor is boiled over the fire, taking care to 

 ftir and flcim it until it has obtained' a- very thick confiftence. If it be kept too long over 

 the fire, it acquires a tafte of honey like melafles. This fugar becomes fpontaneoufly pu- 

 rified. It is fometimes clarified with whites of eggs before it is fufiicientiy boiled, and after 

 the clarification' the ebullition is continued : when the boiling is fufEcietit, the fugar is 

 poured into a vefleh which gives it its form. In Canada^ wherever the maples abound^ 



• This appears to me tO'be greatly exaggerated; the largeft American fycamores, according to the report of 

 perfons who have raeafujreditheni, being, no more than-from twenty to twemy.-fout feet round. JVc/s of the 



they 



