$4 NUTRITIVE PLANTS. 



sume a solid form. The dripping carries away a mixture of water, 

 oil, earth, sugar, from the crystallized sugar : for, in all our crys- 

 tallizations, we can never perform the process in the great way, with 

 such nicety as to preserve it free from an equality of proportions, 

 that must necessarily occasion a residue. Repeated solution, cla- 

 rification, evaporation, are requisite to produce pure white sugar 

 from the brown and raw sugars ; because the complete purification 

 of this matter from acid and colouring matter is an operation of 

 great difficulty, and not to be finally completed without processes 

 which are longer than can be conveniently performed, at the first, 

 upon the sugar plantation. 



From vegetables of European growth sugar is not to be easily 

 obtained, unless the process of germination be first produced in 

 them ; or unless they have been penetrated by intense frost. Ger- 

 mination, or thorough freezing, develops sugar in all vegetables 

 in which its principles of hydrogen and carbon, with a small propor- 

 tion of oxygen, exist in any considerable plenty. It is not improbable 

 but that if penetration by a freezing cold could be commanded at 

 pleasure, with sufficient cheapness, it would enable us to obtain sac- 

 charine matter in a large proportion, from a variety of substances, 

 from which even germination does not yield a sufficient quantity. 

 In the sugar beet, and some other European vegetables, sugar is na- 

 turally formed by the functions of vegetation to perfect combina- 

 tion. From these the sugar is obtained by rasping down the vege- 

 table, extracting by water its saccharine juice, evaporating the water 

 charged with the juice to the consistency of syrup, clarifying, puri- 

 fying, and crystallizing it, just in the same manner as sugar from 

 the cane. 



Maple Sugar, 



A valuable sugar is extracted in many of the states of North 

 America, from the juice or sap of the sugar. maple. The tree is 

 tapped with an augre, which is introduced about two inches, and a 

 projecting spout is made below it, under which troughs are set 

 to catch the juice. The season for tapping is from February to 

 April, for about six weeks, during which time a moderate-sized tree 

 will yield from twenty to thirty gallons of sap, from which may be 

 made about five or six pounds of pretty good sugar. During the 

 rest of the year the sap will flow from the wound, but in too thin 



