NATURAL PRODUCTIONS OF IVIASS. 65 



with rapidity. Its timber is very highly prized in the arts, 

 and the wood of its branches is most excellent fuel. No tree 

 is more vigorous or symmetrical in form, and none suffers less 

 from the attacks of insects. Its foliage is clean and beautiful 

 in summer, and as the season advances it assumes the most 

 gorgeous tints of yellow, orange and scarlet. The sap, which 

 flows freely from incisions or borings in early spring, yields a 

 large amount of sugar, identical in its chemical composition 

 with that of the cane, the 'beet and the palm, while its pecul- 

 iar flavor is far more agreeable. Trees thirty years old will 

 furnish one pound of sugar per annum, and larger ones more, 

 according to their size, — the greatest well-authenticated product 

 from a single tree in one season being about thirty pounds. 

 What more certain or sensible way of benefiting the public 

 and improving an estate can there be than to plant a few hun- 

 dred or thousand sugar maples ? 



When we compare the cultivated fields and gardens of 

 Massachusetts with our native flora, we can hardly fail to be 

 impressed with the fact that her natural productions are chiefly 

 rocks, ice and timber. Not a plant grows wild within her 

 limits which is capable, even if cultivated, of furnishing any 

 considerable amount of food, so that only a few wandering 

 savages could subsist within her borders, except for the plants 

 which have been introduced from other regions. Our cereals, 

 vegetables, fruits and flowers, and our principal fodder crops, 

 are almost every one exotica, while the great mass of our 

 staple productions remains the same from year to year ; yet 

 ever}^ intelligent person knows that new species and varieties 

 of useful and ornamental plants are being constantly brought 

 into notice and cultivation. With the exception of a few 

 varieties, like the Concord gi'ape, originated here, this work 

 has hitherto been done for ns mainly by botanists and horti- 

 culturists under the patronage of European governments and 

 societies, many of whom maintain constantly both experimen- 

 tal gardeners at home and intelligent collectors searching for 

 desirable rarities in various parts of the world. There are 

 also a few enterprising dealers in plants who now employ 

 travelling botanists, whose discoveries enable them to bring out 

 novelties to attract the attention of the public to their estab- 

 lishments and to keep up the interest in floricultural pursuits 

 9 



