56 



value, and was then even scarcely procurable, showing how necessary it 

 is that there should be more than one source of supply on this continent 

 for so needful an article. Turpentine is procured in ^the southern forests 

 by cutting and gashing the bark of the tree in the early spring, when 

 twice a week or oftener the trees thus treated are visited and scraped 

 with a blunt hoe which gathers into a receiving vessel the sap which has 

 exuded as turpentine. 



BAST MATTING. 



The inner bark of the basswood tree is of as much importance as the 

 wood, from the use to which it is put It is composed of long tough cells 

 which have given the name of " bast " to the tissue in whatever plant it 

 may occur. Hitherto the great supply has come from Russia in the 

 shape of mattip.g largely used for packing furnitur e , being a coarsely 

 woven fabric of twisted strands of the inner bark of the linden. This 

 matting is an important accessory to gardening, as strips from it are in 

 great demand for tying up plants and young trees. Bast from the 

 American linden or basswood is now sold, and if properly selected is 

 quite as good as the foreign article. It is obtained from young trees, 

 which are stripped whenever they peel freely, and thrown into water ; 

 after a few days steeping, the layers of the bark will readily separate, 

 when they are pulled apart and hung up to dry ;.the inner most layers are 

 too delicate and tender, whilst the outer ones are tough and vary in 

 quality ; the layers are consequently assorted for different uses. This is 

 an industry which will bear increasing in Canada, when it becomes 

 known from statistics that 14,000,000 bast-mats of from 1 to 2 yards 

 square are annually imported into England alone, principally from 

 Russia. 



MAPLE SUGAR. 



Maple sugar is manufactured from the sap of the tree known by the 

 several names of rock maple, sugar maple and hard maple. The season 

 for making it commences in March or early in April, and seldom lasts 

 more than four weeks. The sudden transition of the temperature from 

 winter to spring is essential to its production, for in the latter season 

 only does the vital principle of the tree pass in large quantities from the 

 roots to the branches. It is while making this passage that the sap has 

 to be obtained, which is accomplished by making an incision in the tree 

 some three feet from the ground, and receiving the liquid in a vessel 

 prepared for the purpose. The general method is to bore a hole with an 

 auger in the trunk about an inch deep. Some cut an oblique notch with 

 an axe, but this wounds the tree unnecessarily, and causes premature 

 decay. Beneath the hole or notch a semi-circular incision is made with 

 a large iron gouge called a tapping iron, into which a spout made of a 

 piece of wood, guttered down the centre, is driven to catch the sap as it 

 flows from the hole above, and conduct it to the vessel beneath. These 

 receiving vessels are generally troughs, rudely cut out of a log of ash or 

 other soft wood; but a much handier way of catching the sap is by 



