24 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



All vegetable juices contain acids, and acids resist the process of crystalization. 



Dr. J. C. Jackson* direct* one measured ounce (one-fourth of a g:ill) of pure lime-water to 

 be added to evei-y g;Jlon of sap. This neutralizes the acid, and not only facilitates the gran- 

 ulation, but gives sugar in a tree state, now too generally acid and dehciuescent, besides be- 

 ing charged with salts of th<; oxide of ii'on, insomuch that it ordinarily strikes a black color 

 with tea. 



The process of making a pure white sugar is simple and uuexpensive. The lime added 

 to the sap, combhiing with the peculiar acid of the maple, Ibnns a neutral salt; this salt is 

 iijund to be eiusily soluble in aJcuhol. Dr. Jackson recommends the following process : — 

 I'rocure sheet-iron cones, with an aperture at the small end or apex ; let it be coated with 

 white lead and boiled linseed oil, and thoroughly dried, so that no part can come off. [We 

 do not know why earthen cones, unglazed and painted, would not answer ecpially well, be- 

 .sides being much clieaper.] Let the sugar be put into these cones, stopping the hole in the 

 lower end until it is entu-ely cool. Then remove the stopper, and pour upon the base a 

 quantity of sti-ong whisky or fourth proof rum ;t allow this to liltrate tluongh until the sugar 

 js white. When the loaf is dried it will be pure white sugai-, with the exception of the al- 

 cohol. To get rid of this, dissolve the sugar in pure boiUiig hot water and let it evuparate 

 imtil it is dense enough to ciystalize. Then put it again into the cone-moulds and let it 

 harden. The diibblets which come away h'om the cone while the whisky is draining may 

 be used for making vinegar. It is sometimes the case that whisky would, if freely used in a 

 sugar camp, go off in a wrong direction, benefiting neither the sugar nor the sugar-maker. — 

 If, on this account, any prefer another mode, let them make a. saturated ^ointion of loaf sugar, 

 and pour it, in place of the whisky, upon the base of the cones. Although the sugar will 

 not be quite as white, the drainings will fonn an excellent moliisses, whereas the diauiings 

 by the former methtid are good only for vinegar. 



Care of Sugar Orchards. — It is grievous to wimess the waste committed upon valuable 

 groves of sugar trees. If the special object was to destroy them, it coidd hardly be better 

 leached than by the methods now employed. The holes are cai'elessly made, and often the 

 abominable practice is seen of cutting channels in the tree with an ax. The man who will 

 -^ murder his trees in this tomahawk and scalping-kniftj mamier, is just the man that yEsop 

 meant when he made the fable of a fellow who killed his goose to get at once all the golden 

 eggs. With good carfe, and aUowiug them occasionally a year of rest, a sugar-grove may last 

 for centiuies. 



1 . As soon as possible get your sugar-grove laid down to grass, cleai' out under-brush, thin 

 out timber and useless ti-ees. Trees in open land make about six pounds of sugar, and for- 

 est ti-ees oidy about four pounds, to the season. As the maple is peculiarly rich in potash, 

 (foxir-fiftlrs of the potash exported is made from sugar-maple,) it is evident that it requires that 

 substance in the soil. Upon this account we should advise a hberal use of wood-ashes upon 

 the soil of sugar-groves. 



2. Tapping Trees. — Two taps are usually enough — never more than three; for though as 

 many as 24 have been inserted at once without killing the tiee, regard ought to be had to 

 the use of the ti-ee through a long series of years. At first, bore about two inches ; after ten 

 or twelve days remove the tap, and go one or two inches deeper. By this method more sap 

 wQl be obtiiiued than by going down to the coloied wood at first. I state, upon the author- 

 ity of Wm. Tripure, a Shaker, of Canterbury, N. H., that about 7 lbs. of sugar may be made 

 from a barrel of 20 gallons, or four lbs. the tree for forest ti-ees ; and two men and one boy 

 will tend a thousand ti'ees, making 4,000 lbs. of sugar. 



3. We would recommend the .setting of pasture lands and roadsides of the farm with sugar- 

 maple ti'ees. Then" growth is rapid, and no tree combines more Vcduable properties. It is 

 a beautiful shade ti'ee ; it is excellent fin' fuel ; it is much used for manufacturing purposes; 

 its ashes are valuable for potash, and its sap is rich in sugar. There are 27 species of the ma- 

 ple known ; 12 of them are indigenous to this continent. All of these have a saccharine sap, 

 but only two to a degree sufficient for practical jjurposcs, viz : acer sarcharinum, or the com- 

 mon sugar-maple, and acer jiigrum, or the black sugar-maple. The sap of these contains 

 about half as much sugar as the juice of the sugar-cane. One gallon of pasture maple sap 

 contxuns, on an average, ;3,4r>l grains of sugar; and one gidlon of cane-juice, (in Jamaica,) on 

 an average, yields 7,000 grains of sugar. 



But the cane is subj(.-ct to the necessity of annual and careful cultivation, and its nuuiufac- 

 ture is comp:u-atively expensive and difficult. Whereas the maple is a ])ennanent tree ; re- 

 (luires no cultivation ; may be raised on tlie borders of farms vv-ithout t;Jving up gi-ound, and 

 its sap is easily convertible into sugar, and, if carefully made, info sugar as good as ciuie-sugar 

 Ciui be. Add to the above considerations that the sugar-making period with us is a time of 

 comj)arative leisure with the fanner, and the motives for attention to this subject of domestic 

 sugiu--makmg seem to be complete. 



* Appendix to Final Kcport on the Geolosy unci MituTiilogy of New Hampshire, page .'iSl. Tliis admi- 

 rable report is an able exposition of the benotic of public State surveys. 



t If those who drink whisky would pour it on the suyar in the relininy cones, instead of upon suear in> 

 tumblers, it would icline ilian as much as it does the suijar, performinf! two valuable processes at once. 



