262 Botany. 
tained one pound of sugar from three gallons, while it re- 
quired five or six gallons from a tree in its wild state. 
7. That a few acres of land planted with maples and im- 
proved as a sugar orchard, would probably be more proiit- 
able than the same ground devoted to fruit trees. 
8. That the buds and twigs of the sugar maple are used 
for food for cattle in the winter and spring. 
I had for several years known that Fryeburg was celebra- 
ted in the adjoining country for manufacturmg sugar. A 
few months ago [ had occasion to visit the pleasant village 
in that town. On enquiring into the subject I learned the 
following particulars : 
Ay The sugar in Fryeburg is net made from the sugar ma- 
ple but from the river maple, (cer ertocarpum) which 
abounds there on the banks of the Saco. 
2. About four gallons of sap afford one pound of sugar. 
3. Two men in 1819 made twelve hundred pounds from 
two hundred and twenty-five trees, with two taps to a tree, 
equal to five and one third pounds to a tree. 
4, The sap was generally said to be sweeter than that of 
the sugar maple. 
5. A particular cluster of trunks springing apparently 
from the same root, tapped in several places afforded twen- 
ty gallons of sap in one day ! 
6. Those who make sugar from the sugar and river ma- 
ples growing together, give the preference to the river 
maple. | 
7. The sugar is whiter and of a better quality than that of 
the sugar maple.* 
8. A peculiar method of tapping is practised in Fryeburg. 
. The incision from which the sap issues is made by driving 
a gouge a little obliquely upward, an inch or more into the 
wood. A spout or tap about a foot long, to conduct off the 
sap, is inserted about two inches below this incision with. 
the same gouge. ‘Fhe two incisions are situated thus : 07 
One principal advantage ot this method is, that the wound 
In the free is so small that it is perfectly healed or grown 
over’ in two years, the tree sustaining little or no injury. 
7 
The other common methods of tapping are two, 1. With 
* Micheaux says, that the sugar made from the river maple on the Ohid, is 
whiter and more agreeable to the taste than that from the sugar maple. 
