Sugar 



113 



MAPLE -SUGAR 



As in the East the sugar-yielding palms have been made use of by man from time im- 

 memorial, so in the West, in Canada and the United States, the Indians from similarly remote 

 times have utilised the sugar maples, which find their home in these countries. The sugar 

 was first made in a very primitive manner, but later, with advances in communication and 

 interchange of products between one country and another, cane-sugar from the West Indies 

 appeared as a competitor with maple-sugar in America. At first cane-sugar was a luxury, 

 but as it decreased in price it gradually supplanted maple-sugar, and but for certain qualities 

 the latter product might have died. At the present time cane and beet-sugar have displaced 

 maple-sugar for all ordinary purposes ; but owing to its peculiar flavour there is a special 

 demand for it. The most important maple is the " Sugar Maple " and a variety known as 

 the " Black Maple." Of less value are the " Silver Maple," the " Red Maple," and least of 

 all the Box Elder. The sugar maple is confined to the western portions of the United States 

 and the South West of Canada ; but, although occurring over a large area of country trie com- 

 mercial production of sugar is restricted to those places where there is a gradual spring, with 

 sunny days and cold frosty nights, as it is only under such conditions that the sap flows 

 sufficiently freely. The actual flow of sap depends on many causes, such as the size of the 

 tree, the season, the difference in temperature between day and night, while even individual 

 trees vary greatly in different years. Trees with large crowns of foliage yield the best sap. 



The usual sugar-making season extends from about the middle of March to near the end 

 of April. The mode of tapping the trees is very simple. The bark is cleaned with a brush, 

 and a hole about half an inch across and one inch deep bored in the trunk on the sunny side 

 of the tree. Into this hole a metal or wooden spout is fastened, and to it a pail is attached 

 to collect the sap (see illustration). Periodically the pails are emptied and the contents 

 evaporated down over a fire, until it is in the condition of syrup. This is either retained in 

 this state or evaporation is continued still further, until by testing it is found that the sugar 

 will crystallise out, when the syrup is poured into moulds and allowed to set. 



CACAO OR COCOA 



It is convenient in many ways to use the name cacao as it tends to obviate the confusion 

 which so often exists due to the wrong usage of the word cocoa. A hazy notion often exists 

 that the cocoa-nut and the 

 beverage cocoa have some- 

 thing in common in their 

 origin. Nothing, of course, 

 could be farther from the 

 truth. The cocoa-nut, or as 

 it is preferable to write it, 

 coco-nut, is the fruit of a 

 palm (Cocos nucijera), whilst 

 cocoa is prepared from the 

 seeds of a quite distinct tree 

 (Theobroma Cacao). The coca 

 plant from which the drug 

 cocaine is obtained is, need- 

 less to say, quite distinct 

 from both. 



The high esteem in which 

 cacao was held when it was 

 first discovered is well cutting off the fruit with knives 



