MAPLE TREES. 383 
after having been tapped for six or seven suc¬ 
cessive years, always yield more sap than they 
do on being first wounded; this sap, however, 
is not so rich as that which the trees distil for 
the first time; but from its coming' in an in¬ 
creased portion, as much sugar is generally pro¬ 
cured from a single tree on the fifth or sixth 
year of its being tapped as on the first. 
The maple is the only sort of raw sugar 
made use of in the country parts of Canada; 
it is very generally used also by the inhabitants 
of the towns, whither it is brought for sale by 
the country people who attend the markets, 
just the same fts any other kind of country 
produce. * The most common form in which 
it is seen is in loaves or thick round cakes/pre¬ 
cisely as it comes out of the vessel where it is 
boiled down from the sap These cakes are of 
a very dark colour in general, and very bard; 
as they are wanted they arc scraped down w ith 
a knife, and when thus reduced into powder, 
the sugar appears of a much lighter cast, and 
not unlike West Indian muscovada or grained 
sugar. If the maple sugar be carefully boiled 
with lime, whites of eggs, blood, or any other 
articles usually employed for clarifying sugar, 
and properly granulated, by draining off of the 
melasses, it is by no means inferior, either 
in point of strength, flavour, or appearance 
to the eye, to any West India, sugar what- 
