CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 197 



tree tops to expand rapidly, must exist in the air. The number of trees to be 

 tapped, depends on the means of disposing of the sap nearly as fast as it flows, 

 and on the quantity of sugar it is intended to make. In ordinary seasons four 

 pounds to a tree will not be too high an estimate. 



The sap should be boiled away immediately after it is gath- 

 ered from the trees. The buckets, the receivers, the kettles, 

 should all be kept scrupulously neat and sweet. The sap and 

 the syrup, when boiling, should be carefully scummed and 

 cleansed. Two quarts of milk, stirred into the syrup when 

 cold, and the whole gradually raised to boiling, will complete- 

 ly cleanse a quantity of syrup sufficient to produce thirty-five 

 pounds of sugar. After the addition of the milk the syrup 

 should not be agitated in the least, until the impure mass has 

 risen to the surface, and is ready to be removed by skimming. 

 Lime is used as a corrector of the gallic acid, which at an ad- 

 vanced period of the sugar season, or when the sap has stood 

 for some time, renders the conversion of the syrup into sugar 

 impossible. For this the lime is a corrector. If more sap is 

 gathered than can be boiled down at the time, it is to be stored 

 in a large tub or reservoir, under cover; and a handful of lime 

 is occasionally thrown into it, and when necessary stirred up. 

 A handful of lime will be sufficient for several barrels of sap, 

 if applied often. It is recommended to wash all the utensils 

 frequently with a preparation of lime-water.* 



III. THE SUGAR-BEET. 



THE beet is now cultivated largely in France, and through- 

 out the north of Europe, for its sugar. The sugar produced, 

 when crystallized which is easily effected, provided the quan- 

 tity of syrup operated on is sufficiently large is then no way 

 inferior to that derived from the sugar-cane. The fact that 

 crystallized sugar could be obtained from the beet-root, was- 

 first noticed by MARGRAFF in 1747, but excited little or no 

 attention until 1790, when ACHARD, a German chemist, 

 directed the men of science in France to that subject. The 

 success which now attends the culture of the beet, and the 

 fabrication of sugar in France, owes its origin to the plans of 

 NAPOLEON, to render his empire independent of the sugar com- 

 merce. After the downfall of that great captain, and the re- 

 storation of the Bourbons, its manufacture was encouraged by 

 a system of fiscal regulations, imposing a somewhat onerous 

 duty on importations with a shade of difference in favour of 



* Genesee Farmer, vol. iv. p. 91. 

 17* 



