377 
are generally found upon an acre of ground. They grow only in the richest 
soils, and frequently in stony ground. Springs of the purest water abound 
in their neighbourhood. They are when fully grown as tall as the white 
and black oaks, and from two to three feet in diameter.* They put forth a 
beautiful white blossom in the Spring before they show a single leaf. The 
colour of the blossom distinguishes them from the acer rubrum , or the com¬ 
mon maple, which affords a blossom of a red colour. The wood of the 
Sugar Maple-tree is extremely inflammable, and is preferred upon that 
account by hunters and surveyors for fire-wood. Its small branches are so 
much impregnated with sugar as to afford support to the cattle, horses, and 
sheep of the first settlers during the winter, before they are able to cultivate 
forage for that purpose. Its ashes afford a great quantity of pot ash, ex¬ 
ceeded by few, or perhaps by none of the trees that grow in the woods of 
the United States. 
The tree is supposed to arrive at its full growth in the woods in twenty 
years. 
It is not injured by tapping; on the contrary, the oftener it is tapped, the 
more syrup is obtained from it. In this respect it follows a law of animal 
secretion. A single tree has not only survived, but flourished after forty- 
two tappings in the same number of years. The effects of a yearly discharge 
of sap from the tree in improving and increasing the sap, is demonstrated 
from the superior excellence of those trees which have been perforated in an 
hundred places, by a small wood-pecker which feeds upon the sap. The 
trees after having been wounded in this way, distil the remains of their juice 
on the ground, and afterwards acquire a black colour. The sap of these 
trees is much sweeter to the taste than that which is obtained from trees 
which have not been previously wounded, and it affords more sugar. 
From twenty-three gallons and one quart of sap procured in twenty 
hours from only two of these dark coloured trees, Arthur Noble, Esq. of 
the state of New York, obtained four pounds and thirteen ounces of good 
grained sugar. 
A tree of an ordinary size yields in a good season, from twenty to thirty 
* Baron La Hontan, in his voyage to North America, gives the following account of the Maple- 
tree in Canada. After describing the black Cherry-tree, some of which he says are as tall as the 
loftiest oaks, and as big as a hogshead, he adds, “ The Maple-tree is much of the same height and 
bulk. It bears no resemblance to that sort we have in Europe.” 
5 C 
