290 
SUGAR MAPLE. 
it is put over the fire. The sap, as has already been 
observed, flows into wooden troughs, from which it 
is carried and poured into store troughs, or large 
cisterns in the shape of a canoe, and from these 
into tire kettle where it is to be boiled. During 
the process they add butter, hog’s- lard or tallow 7 , to 
prevent the kettle from boiling over ; and lime, 
eggs, or new milk, are mixed with the juice in or- 
der to clarify it. A very small quantity, it seems, 
of these ingredients will suffice for the purpose, 
since a spoonful of slacked lime, the white of one 
egg, or a pint of new milk, will be sufficient to 
clarify fifteen gallons of sap. The sugar, after it 
has been sufficiently boiled, is conducted through 
the remaining processes nearly in the same manner 
as in the West Indies; therefore it will be un- 
necessary to repeat in this place what has been said 
under the description of the Sugar-cane : it may 
not, however, be uninteresting, to compare the 
maple sugar with that which is obtained from the 
West Indian cane, with respect to its quality, price, 
or the probable quantity that can be made of it in 
the United States. Dr. Rush has considered these 
Reads with some attention, and the following is the 
result of his observations : 
M 1 . The quality of this sugar is necessarily bet- 
ter 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 excrements 
with it, and before a particle of dust or of the pol- 
