BEET AND BEET-SUGAR. 125 



days of a horse was the amount of labor expended. In a document 

 upon the sugar plantations of Guadaloupe whicli I have seen, it is 

 stated that a domain of 150 hectares, or 370 acres, is worked by 150 

 negroes, which, reckoning the time that the crop is on the ground 

 at fourteen months, would bring the number of days labor by a man, 

 to 171.8 per English acre. Such an expenditure of labor must in 

 the nature of things absorb the greater part of the profits ; and, 

 indeed, in a commission of inquiry into the laws connected with the 

 sugar trade, it was shown in reference to the plantation in ques- 

 tion, that the cost of cultivation and manufacture was equal to the 

 value of the produce. Still the cane presents one considerable 

 advantage over the beet, that, namely, of furnishing the fuel 

 necessary to the boiling, an advantage which will be better under- 

 stood, when it is known that in the manufacture of every 110 lbs. 

 weight of beet sugar, the consumption of coal amounts to 22 lbs. 



In countries where sugar is cheap, it becomes an ordinary article 

 of diet; in the public market-places of the great towns of South 

 America, one of the rations commonly exposed for sale consists of 

 brown sugar and cheese. M. Codazzi estimates the quantity of 

 sugar consumed by each inhabitant of Venezuela at 110 lbs. In 

 England it amounts to about 22 lbs. ; in Ireland, to no more than 

 4 lbs. and joths ; in Holland it is 15j-^„ lbs. ; in France it is 8~- lbs. ; 

 in Italy, 2f^ lbs. ; and in Russia, but lyV lb. per head. 



Maple sugar. {Acer saccharinum.) The maple is very common 

 in the east of the United States of America. The tree is occa- 

 sionally met with in clumps of several acres in extent, but it is 

 more commonly found dispersed in the forest, growing among pines, 

 poplars, ashes, &c. The tree grows particularly in rich soils, and 

 attains the height of the oak; the trunk being often more than three 

 feet in diameter. The maple becomes covered with flowers in the 

 spring before the appearance of the leaves. It is supposed to be in 

 its prime at the age of about twenty years. The sap of the maple 

 is obtained by piercing the trunk to the depth of from six to ten 

 inches. A piece of wood to serve as a gutter is placed in the hole, 

 and the sap is received in a vessel placed underneath. It is usual 

 to pierce the tree first on the side that is towards the south ; when 

 the flow of sap begins to lessen, it is tapped upon the north side. 

 The best season for making maple sugar is the beginning of spring, 

 February, March, and April ; the sap continues to flow during five 

 or six weeks. The quantity of sap obtained is found to be largest 

 when the days are hot and the nights cold ; the quantity collected 

 in the course of twenty-four hours will vary from about half a pint 

 to thirty pints and more ; the temperature of the air has the most 

 marked influence upon the flow of the sap ; it ceases completely, 

 for instance, in those nights when it freezes after a very hot day. 



The maple does not appear to S'ffer from reiterated perforation ; 

 trees are mentioned which were still flourishing after having yielded 

 sugar for forty-tw^o consecutive years. In certain cases, which, 

 however, must be held as exceptions to the rule, as many as 183 

 pints of sap have been tapped from a maple in the course of twenty- 



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