38S travels through lower Canada i 
side of the tree, of one inch or an inch and & 
half in diameter,, and two or three inches* ift 
depths obliquely upwards • but the most coui> 
mon mode of coming at it is by cutting a large 
gash in the tree with an axe. In each case a 
small spout is fixed at the bottom of the wound, 
and a vessel is placed underneath to receive the 
liquor as it falls. 
A maple tree of the diameter of twenty 
inches will commonly yield sufficient sap for 
making five pounds of sugar each year, and 
instances have been known of trees yielding 
nearly this quantity annually for a series of 
thirty years. Trees that have been gashed and 
mangled with an axe will not last by any means 
so long as those which have been carefully 
pierced with an auger; the axe, however, is ge¬ 
nerally .used, because the sap distils much 
faster from the wound made by it^than from 
that made by an auger, and it is always an ob¬ 
ject with the farmer, to have the sap brought 
home, and boiled down as speedily as possible, 
in order that the making of sugar may not in¬ 
terfere with his other agricultural pursuits. 
The season for tapping the trees is when the 
sap begins to rise, at the commencement of 
spring, which is just the time that the farmer is 
most busied in making preparations for sowing 
his grain. 
It is a. very remarkable fact, that these trees. 
