3o6 On the Jmerican Sugar\MapIt, 



they make this fugar, as, In France, cherry brandy is made In fuch places as abound with 



cherries. 



The firft juice which is extracted from the maples In the fpring is fweeter than that 

 which flows at the end of the feafon, when it has the tafte which in Canada is called the 

 tafte of the fap. This lafl, from which the fugar is more difficultly extra£led,, is kept in 

 the ftate of fyrup. It contains more fugar in proportion as the weather is colder. Trees 

 of the fame, age do not afford the fame quantity either of fap or of fugar, neither do the 

 quantities of fugar in like quantities of fap agree. That of the old maples, which is lefs 

 abundant, is more faccharine. The fap of maples which grow in a mountainous and ftony 

 foil is more faccharine than that of fuch trees as grow in low humid foils. This obferva- 

 tion holds good with regard to all vegetable produdlions. 



A tree of three or four feet in circumference may afford from thirty to fixty pints of 

 liquor, and foroetimes more; and a pound of fugar is about the quantity obtained from fix- 

 teen pints, that is to fay, nearly three pounds of fugar per tree. Care muft be taken to 

 make the openings on the fame fide every year, in order that the tree may not die. The 

 fouth or fouth-wcft is the proper fide. Mr. Gaultier obtained in a quarter of an hour a 

 pint of this faccharine fluid from a perforation three inches deep, made on this fide of a 

 tree four feet in circumference ; at the fame time that a perforation in the fame tree on 

 the north and north-eaft afforded him only a chopine or half pint in the fame time. If 

 the perforations be multiplied the tree becomes exhaufted, and its old age is accelerated. It 

 feems to me that It would be advifable to leave the tree untouched every fecond year, in 

 the fame manner as good economllls fuffer their mulberry trees to repofe at like periods. 



Father Charlevoix caufed a refiner at Orleans to make a trial to refine the maple fugar. 

 He found feme difl^icuities in the attempt ; but with attention thefe difficulties have been 

 furmounted, for it Is at prefent refined in America. This fugar, in the ftate we ufually re- 

 ceive it from that country, may be kept a long time without alteration, as I have feen in a 

 piece in the colleftion of Citizen Juffieu. 



Gaultier and Kalm affirm, that the maple fugar of the favagcs of Canada Is mixed with 

 flour, whether to rciuder It more nutritious or to augment the quantity; but this kind of 

 fophiftication, if the maple fugar fliould become an obje£i: of commercial intereft, would 

 be eafily difcovered. Such fugar is whiter than other famples not fo adulterated. 



The fugar of the maple Is employed by the inhabitants of the remote parts of Canada, 

 for the fame ufes as the fugar of the cane with us, becaufe they are poor ; and this fugar, 

 though lefs pleafing to the fight and tafte, cofts them nothing but the trouble of tapping 

 the trees and evaporating the fluid. This fugar is more difficultly foluble in water ; and its 

 fweetening quality. If I may ufc this expreffion after Kalm, is to that of the fugar-cane 

 as one to two. The richer inhabitants of towns which by commerce have Intercourfe with 

 the colonies where the fugar-cane Is cultivated, prefer for their ordinary confumption the 

 fugar of this laft plant, and ufe that of the maple as an agreeable medicament. It is 

 particularly recommended for coughs and colds, and its ufe is even prefcrlbed for diforders 

 of the lungs. 



It is eftimated that between twelve and fifteen thoufand pounds weight of maple fugar 

 18 annually made In Canada. It is the product of four or five thoufand trees. From this 

 izStf fuppofing an arpent of land of a hundred perches, at eighteen feet the perch, planted 



7 with 



