Miscellanies. 199 



through the bark of this tree and barely wounded the wood below, yet 

 at this trifling outlet, the sugar water has continued to discharge itself 

 all day. Waggons not unfrequently are driven over the exposed roots, 

 so as to grind off the bark ; and the hub is as often brought into con- 

 tact with the tree, so as to rub the bark off from the trunk : from these 

 wounds, there always flows, at the close of winter, sugar water enough 

 to moisten the road for a considerable distance from the tree. Our far- 

 mers in the west, where the Acer saccharinum abounds, never think of 

 boring more than an inch or two into the tree ; the object being merely 

 to secure a hold for the inserted tube. Were they to extend the boring 

 into the heart-wood, they would not only soon destroy the tree, but 

 they would never be compensated for this additional labor ; and I ven- 

 ture to say, they would not obtain one drop of fluid from the heart- 

 wood ; whence, on the contrary, the writer before us, imagines all the 

 sugar water is derived. On warm days in winter, I have seen the stump 

 and trunk of sugar trees cut down in that season, moistened from the 

 bark to the central colored layers, by the water oozing from all parts of 

 the alburnum ; while the heart-wood, to all appearance, was as " dry 

 as a broomstick." I may add : it is well known that in summer, when 

 the writer quoted supposes the sap to be restored to the alburnum, no 

 fluid can be obtained from the tree by boring into it. 



The Acer saccharinum is one of those trees, whose colored centres, 

 bear a very small proportion to the bulk of the alburnum. 



Perhaps in this connection, I may be allowed to make a collateral 

 ci'iticism upon a wood-cut in one of the early numbers of the Family 

 Magazine. The engraver, designing to illustrate the process of sugar- 

 making, a very correct account of which is given in the text, has rep- 

 resented a laborer holding a tub with both hands, at the foot of a tree, 

 from which issues a stream with such force as to form a parabolic curve : 

 if I recollect rightly, another individual stands near with another vessel 

 to slip under the jet, the moment the tub should become filled. W^e 

 have no such trees as this, in the west. It is questionable whether the 

 engraver ever made acquaintance with a sugar tree. There is perhaps 

 no art or study which is not facilitated or enhanced by the acquisition 

 of general knowledge. 



The writer, in order to sustain his opinion, further remarks, proof 

 " may be found in the practice of the pioneers of our western hard 

 wood forests ; there, as I have been informed, they used to girdle their 

 trees in the winter, for the very purpose of having them rot and fall 

 down, and thereby save the necessity of cutting them." The practice 

 of girdling trees, is still prevalent throughout the west ; the object being 

 to get rid of the timber with the least labor. But I am not aware that 

 any theoretical views influence the workmen in selecting the winter 



