

ON GUM AND SUGAR TREES 



sary is to bore an auger hole in the trunk of the 

 tree, and insert a spigot or grooved stick to guide 

 the sap into a bucket. 



A single tree may be tapped in several places, 

 and a bucket of sap will run from each spigot in 

 the course of the day. 



The sap itself is a clear, watery fluid, the sweet 

 taste of which gives assurance of the quality of 

 the sugar it contains. By boiling the sap to evap- 

 orate the surplus water, a thick syrup is produced 

 which crystallizes on cooling, producing the maple 

 sugar of commerce. 



Nothing is added to the sap and nothing but 

 part of its watery content is taken away from it 

 that is to say, if it is honestly made. The sugar as 

 the maple supplies it, is a perfect product requir- 

 ing no diluent and calling for no elaborate process 

 of manufacture. 



Perhaps it is not so much matter for surprise 

 that maple trees produce this sweet sap in such 

 abundance as that other trees do not more gener- 

 ally imitate its example. For the function of the 

 sugar in supplying nourishment for the young buds 

 before the leaves are sufficiently expanded to begin 

 their work of sugar manufacture is clearly enough 

 understood. All other deciduous trees must supply 

 nutriment in similar way to their growing buds. 



But in the case of other trees, either the sap 



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