384 
1,000,000 dollars. The only part of this calculation that will appear im¬ 
probable is, the number of families supposed to be employed in the manu¬ 
factory of the sugar; but the difficulty of admitting this supposition will 
vanish when we consider, that double that number of families are employed 
every year, in making cyder, the trouble, risks, and expenses of which are 
all much greater than those of making maple-sugar. 
But the profit of the maple tree is not confined to its sugar. It affords 
a most agreeable molasses, and an excellent vinegar. The sap which is suit¬ 
able for these purposes is obtained after the sap which affords trie sugar has 
ceased to flow, so that the manufactories of these different products of the 
maple tree, by succeeding , do not interfere with each other. The molasses 
may be made to compose the basis of a pleasant summer beer. 
A person who had been many years acquainted with the usual method 
of making this article, having obtained the instructions of a sugar refiner in 
Philadelphia, be^an his experiments in February 1?Q0, at Stockport, on the 
river Delaware, and sent sugar to Philadelphia, equal in the opinion of good 
judges to the best sugars imported from the West-India islands. He is clearly 
of opinion that four active men, well provided with materials and conveni¬ 
ences, may turn out, in a common season, which lasts from four to six weeks, 
40 cwt. of good sugar. 
In all sugar plantations it will be advantageous to cut out the different 
sorts of timber which grow intermixed with the Maple-tree, and even such 
of that species as are not thriving trees. The timber so cut out will serve 
as fuel for the boilers, and leave openings for the rays of the sun to enter, 
which will improve and enrich the sap.* 
The first account we have of this subject being adverted to in England 
is from the philosophical Letters of Mr. Ray, and others, published by W. 
Derham. 
Dr. ROBINSON to Mr. RAY. 
Sir, London, March 10, 1684. 
I have enclosed some sugar of the first boiling got out of 
the juice of the wounded Maple. Mr. Ashton, our Secretary, gave it me for 
you; it was sent me from Canada, where the savages prepare it out of the 
* From Dr. Rush’s account of the Sugar Maple-tree, inYol. HI. of the American Transactions. 
