B04 FORESTS OF SUGAR-MAPLE. 



are now planted for the raising of sugar. Such groves, 

 in the opinion of many, will yield more profit than any 

 other use to which the land can be put, as beneath the 

 trees an excellent pasture springs up. 



The sugar maple, Acer saccharinum^ forms extensive 

 natural forests on fertile soils, and especially on those of 

 the Niagara and other limestone formations of this 

 region, though I am not aware that it particularly affects 

 soils of a calcareous character. Into these forests, in 

 spring, the sugar-makers plunge, carrying with them a 

 huge pot, a few buckets and other utensils, their axes, 

 and a supply of food. They erect a shanty in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the most numerous maple-trees, make inci- 

 sions into as many as they can visit twice a-day to collect 

 the sap, boil it down to the crystallising point, and pom- 

 it into oblong brick-shaped moulds. In this way, in the 

 valley of the Chaudi^re, from 3000 to 5000 lb. of sugar 

 will sometiuies be made by a single party of two or three 

 men. 



The day having cleared up, we were enabled to take 

 a short drive over the domain, as far as the mountain of 

 Beloeil — a lofty isolated ridge, which springs up in the 

 midst of the plain, at a distance of two or three miles 

 from St Hilaire. 



The soil which prevails In the valley of the Richelieu 

 Hiver, and over a large portion of this district, is a stiff, 

 light-coloured clay, which used to be rich In the produc- 

 tion of wheat, and was esteemed the garden of Canada. 

 It gradually became Impoverished however, till in 1835 

 the wheat-midge appeared, and almost banished the 

 growth of wheat. In 1848 and 1849 the ravages of 

 the Insect a little abated, and small fields of wheat 

 arrived at comparative perfection. Here, as In other 

 provinces and States, It has been observed that late- 

 sown wheat Is less injured by the midge than early 

 sown — that which Is put In during the third week of 



