208 



WISCONSIN AGRICULTUEE. 



The Sugar Maple is often, and very deservedly employed as 

 an ornamental tree about the streets of towns and cities; its 

 beauty of form, bright green foliage, and the brilliant autumnal 

 tints assumed by the leaves, are so many very desirable qualities 



in this fine tree for such 

 purposes. But the slow- 

 ness of its growth is quite 

 an objection, in this " fast 

 age;" hence, the Sugar 

 Maple should be planted 

 alternately with some more 

 lapidly growing species, 

 that can be cut away when 

 the maple has attained a 

 sufl&cient size to answer the 

 purpose of ornament and 

 shade. Another rery se- 

 rious objection to this tree 

 is, the temptation recur- 

 ring every spring to tap it 

 for the sweet sap it then 

 SUGAR MAPLE. "'^^ contaius — thus materially 



injuring the tree, and retarding its growth. It is a principle laid 

 down in the books on ornamental and landscape gardening, that 

 all trees having useful qualities should be avoided in making 

 selections for these purposes; thus removing all temptation to 

 destroy the ornamental by converting them into the useful. 

 Though the sap of all the maple family contains sugar, this is 

 the only species that affords it in such abundance as to be of 

 much practical value. The Black Maple, {Acer nigrum MicJix,) 

 is only a variety of the Sugar Maple, not having permanent 

 characters to distinguish it from that species. The flower of the 

 Sugar Maple appear in May ; and the seeds are ripe in Septem- 

 ber. The figure represents a leaf and the ripe fruit, both re- 

 duced to one half the natural size. 



