198 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
March 21, 1855. The tree-sparrow, flitting 
song-sparrow-like through the alders, utters a 
sharp metallic tcheep. 
March 21, 1856. 10 A. M. To my red maple 
sugar camp. Found that after a pint and a half 
had run from a single tube after 3 P. M. yester-* 
day afternoon, it had frozen about half an inch 
thick, and this morning a quarter of a pint 
more had run. Between 10J and 111 A. M. this 
forenoon I caught two and three quarters pints 
more from six tubes at the same tree, though it 
is completely overcast, and threatening rain, — 
four and one half pints in all. The sap is an 
agreeable drink like iced water, by chance, with 
a pleasant but slightly sweetish taste. I boiled 
it down in the afternoon, and it made one and 
one half ounces of sugar, without any molasses. 
This appears to be the average amount yielded 
by the sugar maple in similar circumstances, 
viz.) on the south edge of a wood, and on a tree 
partly decayed, two feet in diameter. It is 
worth while to know that there is all this sugar 
in our woods, much of which might be obtained 
by using the refuse wood lying about, without 
damage to the proprietors, who use neither the 
sugar nor the wood. I put in saleratus and a 
little milk while boiling, the former to neutral¬ 
ize the acid, and the latter to collect the impu¬ 
rities in a scum. After boiling it, till I burned 
