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SUGAB. 



portion to its territory, and in some of tlie northern districts of this 

 State the use of cane sugar is almost unknown. Many improvements 

 have been made in the manufacture of maple sugar during the last 

 few years ; formerly the highest attainments in this manufacture only 

 resulted in the production of a fine muscovado-like sugar ; but now, 

 by improved processes, specimens are annually exhibited at the various 

 agricultural fairs, vying with the most beautiful loaf sugar. This has 

 been effected by greater attention to cleanliness in the preparation of 

 the sap, and the improvements in the graining and refining the sugar. 

 A few years ago a premium was awarded by the Oswego County 

 Agricultural Society, New York, to Mr. E. Tinker, for the following 

 improved method of preparing maple sugar. The sap is boiled in a 

 potash caldron kettle to a thick syrup ; strain it when warm, let it 

 stand twenty-four hours to settle, then pour it off. leaving back all 

 that is impure. To clarify fifty pounds take one quart of milk, one 

 ounce of saleratus, and the whites of two eggs, well mixed ; boil the 

 sugar again until it is hard enough to lay upon a saucer, then let it 

 stand in the kettle and cool. Stii' it a very little to prevent it caking 

 in the kettle. For draining use a tube, funnel shaped, fifteen inches 

 square at the top, and coming to a point at the bottom. Put in the 

 sugar when cold, tap at the bottom, and keep a damp flannel cloth of 

 two or three thicknesses on the top of the mass. When drained dis^ 

 solve the sugar in pure warm water, and clarify and drain as before. 



It is about the close of April that the collection of the sap is made. 

 Eeaumur's thermometer rises about midday to 50°, and falls each 

 night to zero, or below. In Canada an incision or a hole is cut in the 

 trunk a few feet from the ground ; in the United States the large 

 branches are also punctured ; a recipient is placed to catch the sap. 

 To save transport and to accelerate and simplify the manufacture, a 

 rough shed is run up in the woods and a large boiler is suspended 

 over a brisk fire. The sap is thrown into it and stirred with a 

 wooden spade. When it boils, it thickens, changes its white colour 

 into a golden yellow, and is poured out into wooden moulds, in which 

 it solidities on cooling ; sometimes it is tui'ned out into earthen pots, 

 which bleaches it, but the quality is sacrificed to colour. In the work 

 of Michaux on ' The Forest Trees of North America,' some interesting 

 details will be found of the process as carried on in the States. They 

 commence there, tapping the trees in February and March ; a cold 

 and dry winter is much more productive of sap than a humid and 

 variable one ; and a fine sunny day after a fi'osty night causes the sap 

 to flow more abundantly, and a tree will occasionally yield two or 

 three gallons. Michaux states that three persons can attend to 250 

 trees, which would yield 1000 lbs. of sugar, or about 4 lbs. per tree. 

 The period during which the sap flows from the trees is about six 

 weeks, at a time when there is little to be done in farming or other 

 operations. In the State of New York there were in 1860 about 

 ten million acres planted with the sugar maple, in the proportion of 

 about thirty trees to the acre. The maple sugar product of Canada was 

 stated in 1849 at 2,303,000 lbs. for the Lower Province, and 

 4,161,000 lbs. for Upper Canada. The census of 1851 gave the total 

 at 10,000,000 lbs., exclusive of what was used locally without being 

 brought to market. 



