104 SUGAR MAPLE. 



smallest branches are so impregnated with sugar, 

 that both flocks and herds, with powerful horses, 

 belonging to the first settlers, have been supported 

 on them during winter. The wood is extremely in- 

 flammable, and its ashes afford a quantity of potash 

 unequalled by those of any forest-tree. 



Men have learned to appropriate the sap which 

 plentifully exudes from out the sugar maple. They 

 perhaps acquired knowledge of its virtues from 

 a small woodpecker which makes an incision in the 

 branches, and feeds upon the nectareous juices. 

 Trees are thus often perforated in an hundred places, 

 and the more frequent the incision, the sweeter is 

 the juice. It is easy to discover those which the 

 woodpecker has tapped, for the juice distils upon 

 the ground, and they become of a dark colour. 

 Twenty-three gallons and one quart of sap have 

 been procured in a single day and night, from one of 

 these dark-coloured trees, from which four pounds 

 and thirteen ounces of excellent sugar were obtained. 

 They are not injured by the process, but the oftener 

 they are tapped, the sweeter and more copious is 

 the juice. A maple has not only survived, but 

 flourished after forty-two incisions made in the same 

 number of years. Even such as have been cut 

 down during the winter, for the support of domestic 

 animals, yield a considerable quantity of sap, when 

 they begin to feel the rays of the sun. Those who 

 travel in the forests are often struck by the singular 

 appearance of spouts made from the sumach or 

 alder, projecting several inches beyond the trunk of 

 stately trees; while, beneath them, clean white troughs 

 are placed to receive the juice as it distils. This 



