MAPLE SUGAR. 57 



are then not invited to an unreasonable depth, which 

 retards their progress to maturity, and keeps the plants 

 too long in a green state. For Indian corn, particular- 

 ly, which seldom suffers from drought, we may plough 

 and bury our manure too deep. W. B. 



Framingham^ Oct. 8, 1838. 



MAPLE SUGAR. 



The following directions for obtaining sap and sugar 

 from the rock-maple were handed us by a friend. We 

 do not expect to teach our New Hampshire and Ver- 

 mont friends how to tap the maple ; still it is possible 

 they may derive some new ideas, as all do not adopt 

 the same course in manufacturing the sugar. This 

 mode of tapping with an auger has been practised for 

 many years, but we were not before aware that the 

 auger should not penetrate more than half an inch into 

 the sap-wood. It is possible, in this age of honeyed 

 words and sugar mania, that some may wish to be 

 sweetened with the sap of the rock-maple tree that 

 may be reared with their own hands by the road side. 

 This is one of the cleanest and most beautiful of our 

 forest trees, and may be propagated and transplanted 

 with as much ease and safety as any tree which we 

 have cultivated. — Ed. 



It is commonly in February, or the first days of the 

 month of March, that the work of making maple sugar 

 is begun, — the time when the sap begins to rise, though 

 the earth may be covered with snow ; and it flows 

 nearly two months before the trees begin to show any 

 vegetation. Having chosen a central place in respect 

 to the trees that are to furnish the sap, a shed is raised, 

 6 



