TORCH-FISHING. 81 



through woollen blankets and set in moulds shaped 

 like a star, in which it becomes crystallised and fit 

 for consumption. 



Maple sugar is of a reddish brown colour, like 

 very coarse brown cane sugar, and has nearly the 

 same flavour. It imparts a flavour rather agreeable 

 than otherwise to the decoction of the Mocha bean. 

 Mr. Bergeron informed me that a maple tree will 

 yield from three to four pounds of sugar every 

 season, and that nearly eleven millions of pounds * 

 are gathered annually in the State of New York 

 alone. In Canada f it is one of the most valuable 

 crops of the country, and produces, as I am in- 

 formed, a yearly total amounting to about £4,000,000 

 sterling. To these details, it may be added that the 

 same trees will yield a crop for twenty consecutive 

 years, without weakening the vigour of their vegeta- 

 tion. There is only one precaution to take, never to 

 perforate the maple tree in the same place, and then 

 a new shoot is formed so that the wound disappears 

 in a few weeks. Managed properly, a very large tree 

 can furnish rather more than twenty-two gallons of 

 sap, which will produce about seven pounds and a 

 half of sugar. 



* According to the statistics of 1850, the produce of the maple 

 forests in the States of the Union was estimated at from fifty to sixty 

 millions of pounds weight. 



+ At the Paris Exposition of 1855, among the articles sent from 

 Canada, were loaves of maple sugar, the saccharine liavour of which 

 was highly commended by the members of the jury. 



VOL. ir. G 



