SUCIAE. 205 



of importation, and is of national consequence. For sugar the 

 world has hitherto relied on the cane, with the exception of some 

 parts of India, where the sugar palm yields it much more cheaply. 

 The sugar cane is, however, a tropical plant, and, of course, its 

 cultivation must of necessity be limited to such hot countries. 

 France, during the wars of Napoleon, shut out from her Indian 

 possessions or deprived of them, commenced making sugar from 

 beets, and it proving unexpectedly successful and profitable, it has 

 as we have just seen, extended not only over that empire, but nearly 

 the whole of continental Europe, where it forms an important 

 item in their system of cultivation and profit. The manufacture 

 has been attempted in the United States ; but though the facts of 

 the ease and certainty with which the beets may be grown and their 

 great value for stock has been fully ascertained, still little progress 

 in the production of sugar from them has been made there. 



MAPLE 



There are few trees in the American forest of more value than the 

 maple (Acer saccJiarimm) . As an ornamental tree, it is exceeded 

 by few ; its ashes abound in alkali, and from it a large proportion 

 of the potash of commerce is produced ; and its sap furnishes a 

 sugar of the best quality, and in abundance. It likewise affords 

 molasses and an excellent vinegar. In the maple the sugar amounts 

 to five per cent, of the whole sap. There is no tree whose shape 

 and whose foliage is more beautiful, and whose presence indicates 

 a more generous, fertile, and permanent soil than the rock maple : 

 in various cabinet-work its timber vies with black walnut and ma- 

 hogany for durability and beauty ; and as an article of fuel its wood 

 equals the solid hickory. Its height is sometimes 100 feet, but it 

 usually grows to a height varying from forty to eighty feet. It is 

 bushy, therefore an elegant shade tree. The maple is indi- 

 genous to the forests of America, and wherever there has been 

 opportunity for a second growth, this tree attains to a considerable 

 size much sooner than might be imagined. In the course of ten 

 or fifteen years the maple becomes of a size to produce sugar. The 

 trees which have come up since the first clearing, produce sap that 

 yields much more saccharine than the original forest maples. 



The whole interior of the northern part of the "United States 

 have relied, and still rely, more on their maple woodlands for sugar 

 than on any other source ; and as a branch of domestic manufac- 

 ture and home production, the business is of no little consequence. 

 The time occupied too in the manufacture is very limited, and 

 occurs at a season when very little other labor can be performed. 



Hitherto but comparatively little attention has been bestowed 

 upon this important branch of industry in Canada. The inhabi- 

 tants of that province might doubtless manufacture a sufficient 

 quantity of maple sugar to supply the demand or consumption in 

 this article for ihe whole population of the country. This variety 

 of sugar may be refined, and made as valuable for table use as the 

 finest qualities of West India sugar. On the south shore of Lake 



