250 SUGAE. 



though intrinsically poorer than my palms, are a far more 

 workable property. 



Nevertheless, owing to the peculiar conditions under which 

 India is placed those, namely, of a teeming population and 

 low rate of labour enormous quantities of palm sugar can 

 be made available, and in this way. Though it would never 

 pay one to be collecting the juice of an entire plantation of 

 palm-trees, yet had I one or two palm-trees growing in my 

 garden, were I a climber by nature or predilection, and were 

 I farther absolved from the fear lest palm-tree friction might 

 not conduce to the immortality of my breeches (through the 

 very circumstance of my not wearing such article of attire), 

 then might I, without any particular tax on my time or 

 trouble, collect and boil-down the exuded palm juice. This 

 is just what happens in India. Millions of natives do this, 

 boil-down their own rough sugar, and sell it to proprietors 

 of European refining establishments. Practically, there is 

 good reason to believe that, but for a certain legislative pro- 

 tection afforded to British refiners, the bulk of white sugar 

 consumed by England and her colonies would come from 

 India. 



Regarded as a commercial source of sugar supply, the 

 beetroot should undoubtedly come next; but as the nature 

 of this disquisition has led me to take cognisance of the sac- 

 charine juice of stems and trees, here would seem the most 

 proper place for adverting to the white maple (Acer saccha- 

 rinwn) as a commercial source of sugar supply. The juice of 

 this tree is obtained by boring into it, collecting the juice 

 which exudes, and manufacturing it into sugar by evapora- 

 tion and crystallisation. 



In some parts of North American Canada, as well as 

 the United States, maple sugar is extracted by the farmers, 

 and made to take the place of cane-extracted sugar, with 

 which it is in every respect identical. 



At last we come to that very interesting branch of our 



