TREES OF AMERICA. 51 



" May we cut a hole in the bark of one 

 of these trees, Uncle Philip, and taste the 

 sap T 



" No, boys ; and for two reasons : in the 

 first place, the trees are not yours or mine, 

 and you have no more right to injure another 

 man's tree, than to take one of his sheep ; and 

 the other reason is, because it is not the right 

 time of year. The Spring is the season for 

 drawing the sap, and you would not be able 

 to get any now, if you were to bore ever so 

 deep." 



" Well, that is new, Uncle Philip : I thought 

 sugar was got from no tree but the maple." 



" Sugar may be made from the sap of al- 

 most all trees ; but it is only of the maple and 

 butternut that the sugar is either good enough 

 or in sufficient quantity to pay for the trouble 

 of making it." 



" Uncle Philip, what is the reason that but- 

 ternuts are so much more plenty than black 

 walnuts ? There are only about twenty black 

 walnut-trees in this wood, and the butternuts 

 are scattered all over it." 



" I suppose the reason is that the butternut 

 is a more hardy tree, and bears the cold 

 better ; it grows, too, in very poor soils ; the 



