OF FOREST-TREES. 



193 



Paiitherine curiosities ; not so called from being supported with figures CHAP. XII. 

 carved like those beasts, as some conceive, and was in use even in '-^"^^^ 

 our grandfathers' days, but from the natural spots and maculations ; 

 Hem, quantis facultatibus cestimavere ligneas maculas ! as TertuUian cries 

 out, de Pallio, cap. v. Such a table was that of Cicero, which cost him 

 ten thousand sesterces ; such another had Asinius Gallus. That of King 



but that he believed the medicinal part of the jam resided wholly in the sugar; and as a 

 reason for thinking so, he added, that he often found the same relief, by taking about half 

 a pint of a syrup, prepared by boiling a little brown sugar in water, just before he went to 

 bed, that he did from a dose of opium. It has been supposed by some of the early 

 physicians of our country, that the sugar obtained from the Maple-tree, is more medicinal, 

 than that obtained from the West-India sugar-cane ; but this opinion, I believe, is without 

 foundation. It is preferable in its qualities to the West-India sugar only from its superior 

 cleanliness. It has been said, that sugar injures theteelh; butthis opinion now has so few 

 advocates, that it does not deserve a serious refutation. To transmit to future generations 

 all the advantages which have been enumerated from the Maple-tree, it will be neces- 

 sary to protect it by law, or by a bounty upon the Maple-sugar, from being destroyed by 

 the settlers in the Maple-country, or to transplant it from the woods, and cultivate it in the 

 old and improved parts of the United States. An orchard consisting of 200 trees, planted 

 upon a common farm, would yield more than the same number of a pple-trees, at a distance 

 from a market-town. A full grown tree in the woods yields five pounds of sugar a year. 

 If a greater exposure of a tree to the action of the sun, has the same effects upon the 

 Maple, that it has upon other trees, a larger quantity of sugar might reasonably be 

 expected from each tree planted in an orchard. Allowing it to be only seven pounds ; then 

 200 trees will yield 1400 pounds of sugar, and deducting 200 from the quantity for the con- 

 sumption of the family, there will remain for sale 1200 pounds, which at 6-90ths of a dollar 

 per pound, will yield an annual profit to the farmer of 80 dollars. But if it should be found 

 that the shade of the Maple does not check the growth of grain any more than it does of 

 grass, double or treble that number of Maple-trees may be planted on every farm, and 

 a profit proportioned to the above calculation be derived from them. Should this mode 

 of transplanting the means of obtaining sugar be successful, it will not be a new one. The 

 sugar-cane of the West-Indies, was brought originally from the East-Indies, by the Portuguese, 

 and cultivated at Madeira; from whence it was transplanted, directly or indirectly, to all 

 the sugar-islands of the West-Indies. It were to be wished, that the settlers upon the sugar 

 Maple-lands, would spare the sugar-tree in clearing their lands. On a farm of 200 acres of 

 land, according to our former calculation, there are usually 6000 Maple-trees. If only 2000 

 of those original and ancient inhabitants of the woods were suffered to remain, and each tree 

 were to afford only five pounds of sugar, the annual profit of such a farm in sugar alone, at 

 the price formerly mentioned, would amount to 666 dollars; 150 dollars of which would 

 probably more than defray all the expenses of making it, and allow a plentiful deduction 

 for family use. According to the usual annual profit of a sugar Maple-tree, each tree is 

 worth to a farmer*, two dollars and 2-3ds of a dollar ; exclusive therefore of the value of the 



• In America, by "farmer," is generally understood the « proprietor," who farms his own land. EDiToa. 



Volume I. I i 



