60 



and from which large quantities of sugar are yearly manufactured. The 

 yield may be estimated from eight to twenty-five pounds annually. The wood 

 is hard and firm, and ranked with the beech, birch, walnut, white elm, oak, 

 white ash and hickory in producing charcoal ; but as wood fuel it is placed by 

 many next to the hickory. The timber is extensively used in cabinet work, 

 mill-gearing, and naval architecture. When the grains are wavy or undulat- 

 ing it is called curled maple, and when contorted, bird's eye maple, according 

 to the form of the undulations. Both these when polished are of exquisite 

 appearance, and when kept dry are not less durable than the oak. 



Few, if any, forest tree excels this for beauty of symetery, and deepness 

 of shade ; and where the soil is adapted to its cultivation, few trees excel it 

 in rapidity of growth, as under favorable circumstances it often acquires a 

 height of eighty feet. R. S. lay in the Oowntry OenUeman of 1862, says : " I 

 lately measured the trunks of a row of sugar maples set out eighteen years 

 ago in the town of Sennett, Cayuga county, N. T. They stood by the road 

 side, had received no care, and now average one foot in diameter, and thirty 

 feet high. Had these trees stood in closer plantations, their diameter would 

 have been less, but their heighth greater." 



It prefers a calcareous soil, rich in vegetable mould, which will be greatly 

 enriched by the vast abundance of leaves. Good wheat land is generally 

 well fitted for its growth ; and it will thrive to perfection on all the black 

 prairie grain soils of Wisconsin ; which its deep shade would render more 

 moist and thus conduce to its own growth. 



The value of an acre of sugar maples of twenty-five years plantation may 

 be thus estimated. One hundred and sixty trees one foot in diameter, will 

 yield ten pounds of sugar each, or 1,600 pounds, at 15 cents, $250, or deduct- 

 ing three-fourths for labor and expenses, leaves 162.50. This will be its~ 

 minimum annual yield for fifty years or more. 



The timber would advantageously increase in quantity until the trees were 

 100 years old ; but would give a profitable yield of timber when the trees 

 would average twenty inches, as at that size they would give a cord of wood 

 to each tree or 160 cords; and which could not be estimated in the tree at 

 much less than |g per cord ; giving the value of the acre of timber at $800. 

 This estimate will not appear high, when it is remembered, that twenty-five 

 feet in length of each tree can be sawed into lumber, making 800 feet to 

 each tree, or 48,000 feet of sawed lumber, worth at present prices $30 per 

 thousand, or $1,440; and the balance of the trees go to the cord wood, giv- 

 ing eighty cords to the acre. The interest on the value of the land, the 

 cost of planting and taxes would be paid by the trimmings, leaving the land 

 as valuable as when the trees were planted, and the sugar and timber may be 

 estimated as profit for care and forethought. These estimates are based on 

 the trees being planted on soil properly adapted to their growth ; that is, on 

 about one-half the lands lying south of town sixteen in Wisconsin. North of 

 that the proportion of land adopted to sugar maple culture is less. 



