CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 



autumn assumes the richest and most glowing red, are abun- 

 dantly sufficient to recommend it as a beautiful ornament in 

 our gardens and avenues. 



The branches of the sugar-maple exhibits great regularity, 

 without stiffness, and are so arranged, that their usual outline 

 is an elegant oval. The bark is remarkably smooth. It is a 

 tree of tolerably quick growth bears transplanting very well 

 and will grow on almost any soil. The most reckless pro- 

 digality has been manifested in the destruction of this valuable 

 tree; in very many sections of our country, whole groves have 

 been felled for no other purpose than the ashes obtained from 

 the burning of the trees. It is stated, on good authority, (1834,) 

 that three-fourths of the pot and pearl ashes made in this coun- 

 try, and which forms so important an article of export from 

 the northern states, is manufactured from the ashes of the 

 sugar-maple. But this destructive system, is now, in a great 

 measure, checked; and it has become a matter of serious im- 

 portance to the farmers residing within the limits of its growth, 

 to perpetuate and extend it.* 



This can be easily accomplished. They may be set out as 

 ornamental and shade trees, around the farm-house, along the 

 avenues, and in clusters in fields where shade is occasionally 

 required; or, the farmer may set apart three, four, or more 

 acres of land for a sugar orchard. The trees may be planted 

 in rows, ten feet apart; and the same interval of ten feet be- 

 tween the rows. This gives four hundred and sixteen trees to 

 an acre. The trees may be procured in abundance in any 

 forest where the sugar-maple grows spontaneously. Those 

 who plant now, will generally plant for posterity; but there 

 are many young farmers, who, if they would address them- 

 selves to it immediately, would probably reap some benefit 

 from such a plantation in their own time, and the advantages 

 that would result to posterity would be very great. SAMUEL 

 M. HOPKINS, Esq., President of the Agricultural Society of 

 Genesee county, New York, says, and he cites a case in point, 

 that a person, after attaining the age of manhood, may raise, 

 even from the seed or sucker, an orchard of maples, from 

 which sugar may bo made twenty years or more, within the 

 possible duration of his life. 



Mr. HOPKINS states that young maples, taken up in the woods 

 and transplanted, may probably be tapped without injury in 

 from ten to fifteen years. He is of opinion, that forty trees, of 

 the largest growth that is, one for every four rods of ground 

 are sufficient for an acre, though he does not object to eighty, 



* Genesee Farmer, vol. ii. p. 233. N. A. Review, April, 1837. 



