273 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



cies, called the Sugar Maple, viz. the Acer 

 saccharinum of Linnaeus. It has been long 

 known that sugar could be made from the 

 juice of these trees ; and as this part of 

 America has been colonized by Europeans 

 since sugar has become so familiar a part of 

 the food of men, this opportunity of obtain- 

 ing it was not likely to have been neglected 

 by the settlers, who were under the neces- 

 sity of obtaining it from these trees, or going 

 without it; thus stimulated, they soon found 

 means of procuring it from the sap of this 

 bountiful tree, nearly equal to the finest Ja- 

 maica sugar ; and they are not only able to 

 furnish themselves amply with this valuable 

 article, but they could, with an increase of 

 hands, supply nearly the whole world with 

 sugar, so abundantly do these trees grow in 

 that part of the world; and they are known 

 to be the hardiest, and the most difficult to 

 destroy, of all the trees in the immense 

 forests of that country. 



Imlay says, in his History of North Ame- 

 rica, " It is very certain, that the life of a 

 sugar maple tree, is as long as that of an 

 oak, or any other tree ; and the more they 

 are used with proper attention, the more 

 plentiful and rich will be their juice to a cer- 



