190 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK I. " JNIaple, and grows in that part of Italy that is on the other side of the 

 "^"^^"^^ " Po beyond the Alps ; the other has a curled grain^ so curiously macu- 

 " lated, that, from a near resemblance, it was usually called the Peacock's 

 " Tail." Lib. xvi. c. xvi. He goes on to commend that of Istria, and 

 that growing on the mountains, for the best : In the next chapter, he says, 

 PulcherrimumveroestBruscim,multoqueexcellentiusetiamnumMolluscu^^^ 



season*. Not more knowledge is necessary for making this sugar tlian is required to make 

 soap, cider, beer, soui-crout, &c. and yet one or all of these are made in most of the farm- 

 houses of the United States. The kettles and /other utensils of a farmer's kitchen, will serve 

 most of the purposes of making sugar, and the time required for the labour, (if it deserves 

 that name,) is at a season when it is impossible for the farmer to employ himself in any species 

 of agriculture. His wife, and all his children above ten years of age, moreover, may assist 

 him in this business, for the profit of the weakest of them is nearly equal to that of a man> 

 when hired for that purpose. A comparative view of this sugar has been frequently made 

 with the sugar which is obtained from the West-India sugar-cane, with respect to its quality, 

 pricej and the possible or probable quantity that can be made of it in the United States, each 

 of which I shall consider in order. 

 " 1. The quality of this sugar is necessarily better than that which is made in the West Indies. 

 It is prepared in a season when not a single insect exists to feed upon it, or to mix its excre- 

 tions with it, and before a particle of dust, or of the pollen of plants, can float in the air. 

 The same observation cannot he applied to the West-India sugar. The insects and worms 

 which prey upon it, and of course mix with it, compose a page in a nomenclature of natural 

 history. I shall say nothing of the hands which are employed in making sugar in the West 

 Indies, but, that men who work for the exclusive benefit of others, are not under the same 

 obligations to keep their persons so clean, while they are employed in this work, as men, 

 women, and children are, who work exclusively for the benefit of themselves, and who have 

 been educated in the iiabits of cleanliness. The superior purity of the Maple-sugar is farther 

 proved by its leaving a less sediment when dissolved in water than the West-India sugar. It 

 has been supposed, that the Maple-sugar is inferior to the West-India sugar in strength. The 

 experiments which led to this opinion, I suspect, have been inaccurate, or have been made 

 with Maple-sugar prepared in a slovenly manner. I have exammed equal quantities, by 

 weight, of both the grained and the loaf sugar, in hyson-tea, and in coffee, made in every 

 respect equal by the minutest circumstances that could affect the quality or taste of each of 

 them, and could perceive no inferiority in the strength of the Maple-sugar. The liquors 



• The follomng receipt, published by William Cooper, Esq. in the Albany Gazette, fully established this 

 fact. 



" Received, Cooper's Town, April 30, 1790, of William Cooper, sixteen pounds, for six hundred and forty 

 " pounds of sugar made with my own hands, without any assistance, in less than four weeks, besides attend- 

 " ing to the other business of my farm, as providing fire-wood, taking care of the cattle, &c. 



« Witness, R. Smith. JOHN NICHOLLS." 



A single family, consisting of a man and his two sons, on the Maple-sugar lands, between the Delaware 

 and Susquehannah, made 18001b. of Maple-sugar in one season. 



