112 SYLVA AMERICANA. 



and continues from four to six weeks ; after which the liquid is 

 less abundant and less rich in the saccharine principle, and is 

 finally so weak, that it can no longer be reduced to sugar. The 

 tree gives the most abundant discharge of its sap, early in the 

 season, and in clear pleasant days, preceded by cold frosty 

 nights. 



The quantity of sap discharged from a tree of an average size, 

 varies in different years and different days. 



Trees are sometimes supposed to average about four pounds of 

 sugar in a season, but frequently do not produce more than half 

 that quantity. A single tree discharges in one day from two 

 quarts, to two or three gallons of sap. 



The following statement appeared some years since in the 

 Greensburgh Pennsylvania Gazette. " Having introduced," 

 says the writer, " twenty tubes into a sugar maple, I drew from 

 it the same day, twenty-three gallons and three quarts of sap, 

 which gave seven pounds and a quarter of sugar. Thirty-three 

 pounds have been made this season from the same tree, which 

 supposes one hundred gallons of sap." From this statement, it 

 appears that but little more than three gallons were required for 

 a pound, though four gallons are commonly allowed. 



Maple sugar is made in most of the Northern and Western 

 States, and in Canada ; and it has been supposed that New 

 York and Pennsylvania contain maples enough to supply the 

 consumption of sugar in the whole of the United States. But as 

 a country becomes settled, the groves and forests of maple 

 disappear, and the expense of converting the sap into sugar is 

 increased ; so that the whole country will, within a moderate 

 period of time, be supplied with this useful article in domestic 

 economy, from foreign importations, or from the juice of the 

 cane in our own country. 



Though the ease and abundance with which sugar is made 

 from the cane, and the expense of fuel to procure it from the 

 sap of the maple would not favor the cultivation of this stately 

 and beautiful tree for the supply of our tables, the value of its 

 timber, and the elegant and cleanly shade it furnishes, would 

 probably render the cultivation of it, especially by the sides of 



