SUGAR AND DYES. 729 



what means the sugar is produced ; probably it is connected 

 with the conversion of starch into sugar, in connection with 

 the turgescence of the sapwood. According to Dr. J. Gifford 

 ("Practical Forestry," 1902), America produces annually, from 

 maples, 25,000 tons of sugar and 250,000 gallons of syrup. By 

 tapping the tree in January, the air-temperature is over 

 0C., the sugary sap exudes freely. The sugar-maple (Acer 

 saccharum) is bored with an auger at 2 to 8 feet from its base to 

 a depth of 2 to 4 inches and a piece of elder-wood without its 

 pith, or a metallic tube inserted in the boring, a vessel being 

 hung from the tube in order to collect the sap; the maximum 

 annual yield of sap by each tree is about 40 gallons, from 

 which 10 Ibs. of sugar is made, or on the average 4 Ibs. of 

 sugar per tree. The sap is removed every morning, and its 

 flow stops when the leaves come out. Trees should not be 

 tupped till they are thirty years old, but afterwards may be 

 tapped as long as the tree is alive. Hitherto no injurious 

 effects in the quality of the wood or the vitality of the tree, 

 except for the wounds caused, have been found to result from 

 tapping the sugar-maple. European maples yield sap, which is 

 hardly inferior in flavour to that of maple-syrup ; the sycamore 

 is specially suitable. [Plm'iii.r sylve8tris t the wild date-palm, is 

 tapped in India for syrup, which is boiled down and refined 

 into sugar, or fermented into an alcoholic drink. Tr.] 



The birch also yields sugary sap when tapped before its 

 leaves sprout. This sap is used partly as medicine, partly 

 after a slight fermentation, as a beverage (birch-wine). 



Trees, chiefly tropical, yield dyes, which are extracted from 

 their wood-cells ; such as Redwood from Pernambuco (Cccsal- 

 j>iiii>ii<t l)r<t,:i!icn.six, C. rrhinatd, C.Sappan) ; Logwood (llaana- 

 oiiiiprt-Jtitiniini), from the W. Indies; Red Sanders 

 iitiilinuii), from the Cuddapah district of Madras. 

 The bark of the N. American dye oak, QUITCH* velutiua 

 (tinctoria), yields a yellow dye, so does Fustic from the wood 

 of Madura tutctoria, from tropical America and the W.Indies, 

 also the bark of the root of the Osage orange-tree, Toxylon 

 poniij't'nim (Madura aurantiaca) from N.America; the inner 

 bark and roots of the common barberry also afford yellow dyes, 

 so does Phellodendron amnrcnsc from Eastern Asia; the woods 



