MAPLE. 



MAPLE. 



There are many species of maple found in 

 the North American forests, which are gene- 

 rally lofty and beautiful trees. They are ca- 

 pable of enduring the most intense cold, and 

 therefore form in the north of the new conti- 

 nent, as they do of the old, extensive forests, 

 which, with those of the beech, appear to suc- 

 ceed the spruce, the larch, the pine, and to 

 precede the chestnut and oak. Michaux gives 

 7 species of maple to Europe, and 7 to Ame- 

 rica, exclusive of the dwarf red maple of the 

 Northeastern States, and the species found in 

 the Northwestern territories. 



The wood of the maples differs so widely in 

 quality in different species, that it becomes diffi- 

 cult to characterize it by general observations. 

 It may be remarked that it speedily decom- 

 poses and decays when exposed to the weather, 

 that it is liable to be injured by worms, and 

 that hence it is unfit for building. It possesses 

 properties, however, which compensate in part 

 for these defects, and which render it useful in 

 the arts and domestic economy. 



Two of the American maples not only flower 

 but mature their seed during the spring months. 

 These are: the white maple (Acer eriocarpum') 

 and the red-flowering maple (A. rubrmn). In 

 the other kinds, the fructification is autumnal, 

 namely: the sugar maple (A. taccharmnm*), 

 black sugar maple (A. nigruin), moose wood, 

 or striped maple (A. x/riu/um), box elder, or 

 ash-leaved maple (A.negundo), mountain maple 

 (A. tnontnninii). 



Some of the inhabitants of the Western 

 States make sugar by boiling down the sap of 

 the white maple, which, however, like that of 

 the red maple, yields only half the proportion 

 of sugar obtained from the juice of the sugar 

 maple. The sap is in motion even earlier in 

 the white than in the sugar maple, beginning 

 to ascend about the middle of January. 



The red-flowering maple is the earliest tree 

 whose bloom announces the return of spring, 

 the beautiful purple blossoms unfolding more 

 than a fortnight before the leaves. It never 

 attains its full size except in swamps where 

 the bottom is composed of fertile soil, and it af- 

 fords the wood chiefly used in the manufacture 

 of Windsor chairs. 



The moose wood maple of the Eastern 

 States was so called by the first settlers, from 

 observing that the moose fed upon its twigs 

 during the latter part of winter and beginning 

 of spring. Although it fills the forests in Nova 

 Scotia and Maine, it becomes rare on approach- 

 ing the Hudson, to the west and south of which 

 river it is confined to the mountainous tracts 

 of the Alleghanies, on the cold and most shaded 

 sides of which mountains it extends to their 

 termination in Georgia. Where it mostly 

 abounds, its principal advantage to the inha- 

 bitants consists in furnishing them, at the close 

 of winter, when their forage is exhausted, a 

 resource for sustaining their cattle, till the ad- 

 vancing season has renewed the herbage. As 

 roon as the buds begin to swell, the famished j 

 horses and neat cattle are turned loose into the 

 woods, to browse on the young shoots, which 

 they consume with avidity. Poor as this re- 

 source may appear, it is not wholly inadequate, 

 since the twigs ars tender, and full of sweet i 



juice. This species of maple is much admired 

 in European parks and gardens, particularly 

 on account of its variegated trunk. When 

 grafted on the Sycamore, as is commonly the 

 case, the striped maple grows to nearly four 

 times its ordinary size. 



The box elder, or ash-leaved maple, is com- 

 mon in the states west of the Alleghanies, and 

 rare to the eastward of these mountains. It is 

 the species which ventures least to the north, 

 not being seen on the Delaware higher than 

 the neighbourhood of Philadelphia. It is chiefly 

 found in low bottoms where the soil is deep, 

 fertile, and constantly wet. Even in such 

 situations it seldom attains more than 50 feet 

 in height, and 20 inches in diameter. 



The mountain maple abounds in Canada, 

 Nova Scotia, and along the whole range of the 

 Alleghany mountains, preferring the northern 

 sides, and the moist, coolest, and most shady 

 situations, on the abrupt and rocky banks of 

 torrents and rivers. It seldom is more than 6 

 or 8 feet high, and is most frequently in the 

 form of a shrub, with a single, straight stock. 

 Like the moose wood, this maple is frequently 

 grafted on the sycamore (A. pseudo-plat anus}, by 

 which means it is increased to nearly twice 

 its natural size. This surprising developement 

 proves how great are the advantages which 

 may be derived from this process and from 

 continued cultivation, in improving inferior 

 vegetables. 



But by far the most interesting tree of this 

 family to the American is the sugar maple, 

 which in the north begins to appear a little 

 north of lake St. John, in Canada, near the 48 

 of latitude, which in the intensity of its winter 

 cold corresponds to the 68 in Europe. It is 

 nowhere more abundant than between the 46 

 and 43, which comprise Canada, New Bruns- 

 wick, Nova Scotia, the states of Maine, New 

 Hampshire, and Vermont, where it enters 

 largely into the composition of the wide-ex- 

 tending forests. Farther south, it is common 

 only in Genesee, in the state of New York, 

 and in the northern highlands of Pennsylvania. 

 Dr. Rush estimated that in the northern parts 

 of these two states, there are 10,000,000 of 

 acres which produce these trees in the propor- 

 tion of 30 to an acre. In some places large 

 masses of woods are formed of them almost 

 exclusively. In Virginia and other Southern 

 States, the tree is comparatively rare, and only 

 to be found in mountainous situations. In 

 those sections of country where the sugar 

 maple most abounds, they distinguish the kinds 

 of soil into what are called black, or soft wood 

 lands, comprising the pines and spruces cover- 

 ing the low grounds and valleys, and the hard 

 wood lands, consisting of leaf-shedding trees, 

 such as the sugar maple, the white and red 

 beech, the birch, and the ash. These last oc- 

 cupy the level grounds. Above the 46 of 

 latitude, the maple and other trees of the hard 

 wood class begin to be rare, and the pines and 

 other resinous trees take their place. Below 

 43, the spruce and other soft wood trees ar* 

 less common, and lose their preponderance in 

 the forests, where they become mingled witb 

 the numerous species of oaks and walnut. 

 Black sugar maple. In the Western States 



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