74 
MAPLE  SUGAR  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 
manufactures  ;  it  is  carried  on  in  the  forests  themselves,  in  the 
open  air,  in  iron  boilers  containing  a  hundred  litres. 
The  manufacture  of  this  kind  of  sugar  is  a  great  resource  for 
the  new  establishments  in  the  countries  where  the  sugar  maple 
grows  abundantly  in  the  forests  ;  but  it  is  evident  that  this  mode 
of  procuring  sugar  can  be  adapted  only  for  certain  localities  at 
great  distances  from  the  centres  of  population,  where  this  matter 
may  supply  the  place  of  cane  sugar  to  the  country  people. 
In  his  History  of  Virginia,  Beverley  says,  that  the  Indians 
made  maple  sugar  before  this  country  was  occupied  by  the 
Europeans;  others,  on  the  contrary,  affirm  that  it  was  entirely 
unknown  to  them,  or  at  least  that  certain  tribes  had  no  know- 
ledge of  it. 
Maple  sugar  has  been  made  for  many  years  in  the  United  States. 
The  State  of  Ohio  produced        3,033,806  lbs.  of  this  sugar 
In  1844,  four  States  of  the  American  Union,  Indiana,  Ohio, 
Vermont  and  New  York,  yielded  more  than  25,000,000  lbs.  of 
maple  sugar.  This  crop  is  not  the  same  every  year  ;  it  varies 
according  as  the  seasons  are  more  or  less  favorable.  In  the 
Northern  and  Western  States,  united,  the  annual  crop  may 
amount  to  from  35  to  40  millions  of  pounds,  and  the  molasses 
to  600,000  or  700,000  gallons  ;  but  this  estimate  is  not  accurate  ; 
we  cannot  place  reliance  in  official  reports  ;  we  will  give  a  proof 
of  this  in  the  course  of  this  article. 
In  1850,  the  United  States  produced  only  34,253,436  lbs.  of 
maple  sugar. 
The  molasses  furnished  by  this  same  sugar  amounted  to 
626,000  gallons.  The  official  returns  give  nothing  accurate  on 
this  subject. 
This  year,  1857,  cane  sugar  and  molasses  being  exceedingly 
high  in  price,  it  may  be  supposed  that  an  abundant  crop  of  maple 
sugar  will  be  collected,  if  the  season  is  favorable.  It  is  towards 
the  end  of  February,  and  in  March  and  April  that  the  crop  is 
collected,  at  the  rise  of  the  sap. 
*  *  *  *  *  *  * 
The  State  of  Kentucky 
In  1840,  the  whole  of  the 
2,471,647 
a 
