NO EMIGRATION. 51 



frost to prevent it sinking into the sub soil. The frost has 

 penetrated from three to five inches in open places, but in 

 the woods hardly through the dead leaves. 



March 12. Frost nearly out of the ground, and ice off 

 the lake ; a good deal of rain ; foggy weather of late, the 

 latter of which is not unusual. The sugar harvest now 

 commences ; parties take large kettles and go out into the 

 &quot; sugar bush,&quot; (those parts of the wood which consist 

 chiefly of the sugar maple tree). A notch is cut or a hole 

 bored into each tree, and a small wooden trough placed to 

 catch the sap, when it is carried in pails or drawn in barrels 

 placed on an ox sled, to the &quot; Camp,&quot; and evaporated by 

 boiling down to the proper consistence, when it is run into 

 various fanciful shapes in moulds, or stirred while cooling 

 to make it into powder, like muscovado, for sale, or use in 

 the family, selling from 4d. to 6fo?. per pound, or 6d. to Is. 

 New York currency (in which trade is generally done in 

 the western part of the province), while in the eastern, it is 

 in Halifax currency, 18s. sterling to the pound, or 5s. 

 to the dollar. When it is a good season (sharp frosts at 

 night and sun warm in the day), on an average each tree will 

 yield twelve gallons or more of sap, producing, on evapo 

 ration, near three pounds of sugar; some families making 

 from 1 000 to 3000 pounds in the season, if it be a good 

 one, which lasts three or four weeks generally. Maple 

 sugar is considered wholesome, and if well drained from 

 molasses, is nearly equal in grain and taste to the West 

 India Muscovado. 



March 19. Been three severe cold days this last week, 

 and a snow storm, which made a little sleighing, but it is 

 gone again, with rain and thunder. Employed in mending 

 the seine for fishing, making ladders, drag-rakes, and 

 a roller ; the two latter are novelties, people ask if the last 

 is to thresh grain. 



March 26. Some frosty and cold, and some wet and 

 mild days, and thunder, of late ; thermometer has been as 

 high as temperate, and down below the freezing point. 



April 2. Fine pleasant clay, and has been pretty much 

 so all the week, yet some frosty nights. Went to the 

 village for whiskey, and for two new cast-iron ploughs (cast 

 at Long Point Furnace, their price 2/. each), and have the 

 wrought-iron ploughshares laid, which are done only once a 

 year, the ground being so free from stones and gravel the 



