168 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



Care of Sugar Orchards. — It is grievous to witness 

 the "waste committed upon valuable groves of sugar-trees. 

 If the special object was to destroy them, it could hardly 

 be better reached than by the methods now employed. 

 The holes are carelessly made, and often the abominable 

 practice is seen of cutting channels in the tree with an axe. 

 The man who will murder his trees in this tomahawk and 

 scalping-knife manner, is just the man that ^sop meant 

 when he made the fable of a fellow who killed his goose to 

 get at once all the golden eggs. With good care, and 

 allowing them occasionally a year of rest, a sugar-grove 

 may last for centuries. 



As soon as possible get your sugar-tree grove laid 

 down to grass, clear ■ out underbrush, thin out timber and 

 useless trees. Trees in open land make about six pounds 

 of sugar, and forest trees only about four pounds to the 

 season. As the maple is peculiarly rich in potash (four- 

 fifths of potash exported is made from sugar-maple), it is 

 evident that it requires that substance in the soil. Upon 

 this account we should advise a liberal use of wood-ashes 

 upon the soil of sugar-groves. 



Tapping Trees, — Two taps are usually enough — never 

 more than three. For though as many as twenty-four have 

 been inserted at once without killing the tree, regard ought 

 to be had to the use of the tree through a long series of 

 years. At first bore about two inches ; after ten or twelve 

 days remove the tap and go one or two inches deeper. 

 By this method more sap will be obtained than by going 

 down to the colored w^ood at first. We state upon the 

 authority of William Tripure, a Shaker of Canterbury, N, H., 

 that about seven pounds of sugar may be made from a 

 barrel of twenty gallons, or four pounds the tree for forest 

 trees; and two men and one boy Avill tend a thousand trees, 

 making 4,000 pounds of sugar. 



We would recommend the setting of pasture-lands, 

 and road-sides of the farm with sugar-maple trees. Their 



