128 Our Field and Forest Trees 



the ash-leaved maple, and the red maple, but the 

 sap of all these trees is thin and watery. A large 

 quantity of it boils down to make a disappoint- 

 ingly small measure of syrup. 



The sugar maple is prized for the richness, as 

 well as for the abundance, of its sap. While the 

 snow is still lying on the ground the tree shows 

 that spring has awakened it by the ceaseless drip 

 of its watery blood into a tin pail, hung at its side. 

 When the sun warms the tree, in the middle of the 

 day, so that the sap " runs well," about seventy 

 drops fall into the pail every minute. It is a slow 

 business, but it goes on every day for about three 

 weeks. By that time the tree has parted with 

 twenty-five gallons or so of its life-blood. But 

 this boils down to rather less than five pounds of 

 sugar. 



As soon as the maple leaves begin to unfold 

 the sap becomes less sweet, and the sugar made 

 from it is darker and has less of the peculiar 

 maple flavor, while the flow from the birch stops 

 altogether as soon as the flower-chains cast off 

 their winter nightcaps and begin to lengthen. In 

 later spring, the best of the maple sap, and all of 

 the birch sap, is used as fast as it rises, to nourish 

 the waking flower-buds, to start young leaves to 

 life, and to help new shoots to grow. 



So the sugar-maker's season is a short one. It 

 begins when spring stirs among the roots, and it 

 ends when buds awaken and unfold. 



