334 ^^ ^^^ Produilion of Sugar, &c. 



well in a moral view, I mean the abolition of the flave-trade, fo degrading to the dignity of 

 man, which may probably in part hz efFedled by fuch a difcovery. 



The chemical analyfis of vegetable fubftances, and the examination of their mixed or 

 combined j-arts, has fufficiently proved, that the Eafl and Weft Indies are not the only coun- 

 tries which nature has blefled with plants containing fugar. Nature has rather propagated 

 the faccharine matter in the produdls of the vegetable kingdom in fuch extraordinary abund- 

 ance, that nothing but perfeverance of refearch is required, to difcover thofe fingle links 

 in the great chain of natural products, from which the faccharine conftUuent part may be ex- 

 perimentally obtained the moft pure, cheap, and abundant. 



Of all the plants hitherto examined with this view, there is certainly none which deferves 

 to be placed fo near the true fugar-cane, as the whole genus of the maple-tree ; and of theie 

 more efpecially the fugar-maple (acer faccharinum) , and the filvcr-maple (acer dafycarpum. 

 Erhard.) 



Both thefe trees have been made ufe of in North America, more than fifty years ago* j and, 

 during the laft eight yeaisf, with uncommonly great profit, for the purpofe of making a very 

 ufeful fugar. My own experiments, made rather in the large way with moft fpecies of 

 maple, during a period of nearly three years, namely, fince the winter of 1796, have con- 

 ■ vinced me, firft, that all of them may be more or fefs advantageoufly employed for making 

 fugar; and, fecondly, that from die fugar and filver- maples cultivated on German ground, 

 and even of inferior goodnefs, a very good raw fugar, or mufovado, in every refpedt like the 

 beft obtained from the Weft-Indian fugar-cane, may be produced fo cheap, that the pound 

 will coft no more than eighteen or twenty pennies J; notwithftanding the juice was boiled 

 with charcoal, and too great a number of workmen had been employed, which in expert- , 

 mental operations, where nothing but convi£tion is aimed at, cannot be otherwife. But 

 from this it may be prefumed with certainty, that if the procefs were carried on in the large 

 way, where a fingle workman, during the tapping, may take care of at leaft five hundred 

 trees, and where the boiling of the liquor may be performed v/lth pit-coal or turf, the pound, 

 of raw fugar procured from the maple-tree will not amount above one grofchen\{. 



The 



* An account of a fort of fugar, made of the juice of the maple, in Canada. Philof. Tranf. No. 171. 

 Katiti's defcription how fugar is made from various fpecies of trees in North America. Traiifadlions of 

 the Royal Academy of Sweden for the year 1751, vol. XIIX. Alfo Mdmoires fur le Sucre d'Erable, ufile 

 flans le Canada, in Nouvel. Oeeon. Hift. 1757. 



+ Notice fur I'Erable a Sucre des Etats Unis, et fur les Moyens d'en extraire le Sucre, etc. par Mr. Rulh, 

 in Rozier's Obfervations fur la Phyfique, etc. torn. XLI. Paris, 1792, page 9, etc. 



J The Berlin pound is about a half-ounce heavier than tlie Englifo avoirdupois j and S27lb. Berlin= 

 1 54 Englilh. Ofle pound fterling being reckoned at par equal to fix dollars fifteen grofch four pennies, 

 Berlin, the above eighteen pennies will give about two -pence half ptnnji Effgliih money. — Tranflator. 



g My experiments for procuring fugar from maple-trees, made feveral years fince, on the fuggtftion of 

 his Exci-liency the minifter of Stare Siruenfee, are in this place mentioned only by way of digreffion. I intend 

 w give, perhaps ia the next volume of thefe Memoirs, a mors circumftantial defcription of them, together 



with: 



