h 



42 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



tion of sugar-making. A fine young maple is selected ; 

 an obli(|ue incision made by two strokes of the axe at a 

 few feet from the ground, and the pent-up sap im- 

 mediately begins to tri(ikle and drop from the wound. 

 A wooden spout is driven in, and the trough placed 

 underneath ; next morning a bucketful of clear sweet 

 sap is removed and taken to the boiling-house. Some- 

 times two or three hundred trees are tapped at a time, 

 and require the attention of a large party of men. At 

 the camp, the sap is carefully boiled and evaj^orated 

 until It attains the consistency of syrup. At this stage 

 much of it is used by the settlers under the name of 

 " maple honey, or molasses." Further boiling ; and on 

 pouring small quantities on to' pieces of ice, it sud- 

 denly cools and contracts, and in this stage is called 

 " maple-wax," which is much prized as a sweetmeat. 

 Just beyond this point the remaining sap is poured 

 into moulds, in which as it cools it forms the solid 

 saccharine mass termed " maple sugar." Sugar may also 

 be obtained, though inferior in quality, from the various 

 birches ; but the sap of these trees is slightly acidulous, 

 and is more often converted into vinegar. 



White or soft maple (A. dasycarpum), and the red 

 flowering maple (A. rubrum), are equally common trees. 

 Both contribute largely to the gorgeous colouring of the 

 fall, and the latter species clothes its leafless sprays in 

 the spring almost as brilliantly with scarlet blossoms. 

 Before these fade, a circlet of light green leaves appears 

 below, when a terminal shoot has a fitting place in an 

 ornamental bouquet of spring flowers. 



As a rule, all the Aceracea3 are noted for breadth of 

 leaf, and, being even more abundant than the birches in 



