48 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



healthy and economical substitute for cane sugar; and without planting, hoe- 

 ing, or manuring, may be obtained by the investment of a few dollars in 

 fixtures for its manufacture, and by adding a little pleasant labor, at a leisure 

 season of the year, to the crude material as taken from the tree. The varying 

 quality of the article offered for sale in village and city shops, ranging from a 

 yellowish white to a dark brown or nearly black, is owing either to the oxide 

 of iron or copper which it may have acquired from the vessels in which it was 

 boiled, to various impurities, such as fine particles of dirt and certain coloring 

 matter wliich an imperfect process of clarification has failed to remove, or to 

 its being scorched while boiling. A lack of skill in its manufacture, and, as 

 a consequence, the almost uniformly inferior quality of the article produced, 

 has tended hitherto to keep the price below a point remunerative to the 

 maker ; and in fact to almost exclude it from the market ; and were it not for 

 its peculiar maple taste, so acceptable to most palates, its manufacture and 

 use would have ceased long; ago. 



The short supply, and high price of cane sugar at the present time, and the 

 necessity for rigid economy in every department of industry, particularly in 

 that of actual production, which the exigencies of the country furce upuu us, 

 render it highly important that the inhabitants of Maine should avail tliem- 

 selves of the means so bountifully placed within their reach, of securing inde- 

 pendently of foreign sources, a sup{)ly of an article which has come to be one 

 of the necessaries of life. And it is gratifying to learn that the attention of 

 farmers is being turned more and more in this direction; the increase in its 

 manufacture in this State, according to the U. S. census returns, being from 

 46 tons in 1850 to 153 tons in 1800. Still, not a hundredth part of our avail- 

 able resources are improved. Large forests of maples exist in Maine which 

 have never yet been scarred by the sugar-maker, and many a leisure day is 

 whiled away by the farmer and others in March and April, which might be 

 profitably employed in providing a store of sweets for home use, or fur the 

 market. Vermont, having an area less than that of Maine, in 1849 produced 

 6,349,357 pounds of sugar and 6,000 gallons of molasses, being more than 

 twenty pounds of sugar to each individual in the State. The facilities for 

 sugar production in ISIaine, on the same areas, are equal to thosn of Vermont; 

 and nothing is wanted but to direct the attention and efforts of Maine farmers 

 to the subject, and institute better processes of manufacture, to make the 

 business one of reasonable profit to the producer, and a saving to the State of 

 many thousands of dollars annually. To this end, a few practical hints will 

 now be given designed to aid the beginner, and perhaps lead to improved 

 practices among those already engaged in the business. 



Kind of Trees. The first requisite to successful sugar-making from the 

 maple is a good orchard, in western parlance, " sugar-busli." Sugar may be 

 made from the sap of several kinds of forest trees, but the maples afford the 

 sweetest and best in available quantities. And of the five species of maples, 

 indigenous in Maine, tlie rock, or sugar maple, (accr saccharinum,) the white, 

 or silver maple, (a. dasycarpum,) and the red, or swamp maple, (a. rubrum.) 

 are relied upon entirely by the sugar-maker. Of these three, the sugar maple 

 is by far the l)est. The sap of the red and silver maple, flows freely, but or- 

 dinarily it contains a much less per cent, of saccharine matter t'lan that of 

 the sugar maple, which would of course increase tiie expem-e of making a defi- 

 nite quantity of sugar, requiring more tubs for receiving, more labor in gath- 

 ering, and more fuel and labor in boiling. Tiie best orchard, tlien, is one of 

 sugar maples ; still, one of either of tiie other species is not to be neglected ; 

 in fact, the white, or " interval maple" — as it is often called — is very exten- 

 sively resorted to for this purpose. 



The quality of the sap varies, not only in the different specirs of maples, 

 and in different individuals of the same species, but also in the same tree in 

 different seasons. It has been observed, too, that tliosc trees wliicli have been 

 tapped for a scries of years yield a much sweeter sap than those tapped for 



