412 



ARBORETUM AND FR UT ICETUM. 



PAItT III. 



Geograp/it/. According to the ekier Michaux's researches, the sugar 

 maple begins a little north of Lake St. John, in Canada, near 48° of N. lat. 

 which, in the rigour of its winter, corresponds to 68° of Em-ope. It is no- 

 where more abundant than between 46° and 43° of N. lat. ; which space 

 comprises Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, the states of Vermont and 

 New Harapshii-e, and the district of Maine : in these regions, it enters largely 

 into the composition of the forests, with which they are still covered. Farther 

 south, it is common only in Genessee in the state of New York, and in the 

 upper parts of Pennsylvania, It is estimated by Dr. Rush, that, in the north- 

 ern parts of these two states, there are 10,000,000 of acres which produce 

 these trees in the proportion of thirty to an acre. In the lower parts of Vir- 

 ginia, of the CaroHnas, and of Georgia, and likewise in the Mississippi ter- 

 ritorj', this tree is unknown, or very rare. It is rapidly disappearing from the 

 forests about New York and Philadelphia, where it is no longer tapped for 

 sugar, but is felled for fuel and for other purposes. 



The sugar maple covers a greater extent of the American soil than any 

 other species of this genus. It flourishes most in mountainous places, where 

 the soil, though fertile, is cold and humid. Besides the parts already men- 

 tioned, it is found along the whole chain of the Alleghanies to its termina- 

 tion in Georgia, and on the steep and shady banks of the rivers which rise 

 in these mountains. {Michaux, 225.) 



Properties and Uses, In America, in Vermont, New Hampshire, the dis- 

 trict of Maine, and farther north, where the oak is not plentiful, the timber 

 of the sugar maple is substituted for it, in preference to that of the beech, 

 the bu'ch, or the elm. When perfectly seasoned, which requires two or 

 three years, it is used by wheelwrights for axle trees and spokes, and for 

 similar purposes. It is also employed, as well as the red-flowered maple, 

 in the manufacture of Windsor chairs. In the country, where the houses are 

 wholly of wood, sugar maple timber is used for the framework ; and in the dis- 

 trict of Maine it is preferred to the beech for the keels of vessels, as it furnishes 

 longer pieces : with the beech and the yellow pine it forms, also, the lower 

 frame of vessels, which is always in the water. The wood exhibits two 

 accidental forms in the arrangement of the fibre, of which cabinet-makers 

 take advantage for making beautiful articles of furniture. The first consists 

 in undulations like those of the curled maple {A. riibrura, see p. 426.) 

 the second, which takes place only in old trees that are still sound, and which 

 appears to aiise from an inflexion of the fibre from the circumference towards 

 the centre, produces spots of half a line in diameter, sometimes contiguous, 

 and sometimes several lines apart. The more numerous the spots, the more 

 beautiful and the more esteemed is the wood. This variety is called bird's- 

 eye maple. Like the curled maple, it is used for inlaying mahogany. Bed- 

 steads are made of it, and portable writing-desks, which are elegant and 

 highly prized. To obtain the finest effect, the log should be sawn in a direc- 

 tion as nearly as possible parallel to the concentrical circles. When cut at 

 the proper season, the sugar maple forms excellent fuel. It is exported from 

 the district of Maine, for the consumption of Boston, and is equally esteemed 

 for that purpose with the hickorj^ 



The ashes of the sugar maple are rich in the alkaUne principle, and it may 

 be confidently asserted, that they furnish four fifths of the potash exported 

 to Europe from Boston and New York. In the forges of Vermont and the 

 district of the Maine, the charcoal of this wood is preferred to any other, and 

 it is said to be one fifth heavier than that made from the same species in 

 the middle and southern states; a fact which sufficiently evinces that this 

 maple acquires its characteristic properties in perfection only in northern 

 climates. 



The wood of the sugar maple is easily distinguished from that of the red- 

 flowered maple, which it resembles in appearance, by its weight and hard- 

 ness. There is, besides, a very simple and certain test: a few drops of 

 sulphate of iron being poured on samples of the different species, the sugar 



