ornamental beauties as a shrub.

When in

a state of maturity, for the purposes of art, no native wood possesses more beauty or a greater variety of appearance.

In the forest it often attains great height, and produces a large quantity of timber. A tree in Blandford, which was four feet through at base and one hundred and eight feet high, yielded seven cords and a half of wood. It is said that the wood of this tree may be easily distinguished from the red or the river maple,. by pouring a few drops of sulphate of iron upon it. This wood turns greenish; that of the two former turns to a deep blue.

In Massachusetts, between five and six hundred thousand pounds of sugar are annually made, valued at about eight cents a pound, yielding a revenue of about fortyfour to fifty thousand dollars per annum. Of the sap, the average quantity of a tree is from twelve to twenty-four gallons each season. In some instances it is much greater. Dr. Rush cites an instance of twenty pounds and one ounce of sugar having been made within nine days, in 1789, from a single tree in Montgomery county, New York. In another instance, thirtythree pounds are said to have been produced from one tree in one season.

-The Ager Sabiha e sugar maple." BETALE WEK - de ff the most luxuriat and beam Teicest trees in Maine, and dimis wherever the sid is of good macy. The assenting sup is very rich in sign ind i rey readily chained by means of a tap, bored with an anger half an inet in diameter into the sup-wood of the tree, the sup being ofllected in the spring of the year, when it first beans to ascend, and before the foliage puts forth. It is customary to heap mow around the roots or stumps of the trees, to prevent their putting forth their leaves so soon as they otherwise would, for the juices of the tree begin to be elaborated as soon as the foliage is developed, and will

not run.

"After obtaining a quantity of maple sap, it is poured into large iron or tinned copper kettles, and boiled down to a thick sirup; and after ascertaining that it is sufficiently concentrated to crystallize or grain, it is thrown into casks or vats, and when the sugar has formed, the molasses is drained off through a plug-hole slightly obstructed by tow. But little art is used in clarifying the sirup, and the chemist would regard the operations as very rude and clumsy; yet a very pleasant sugar, with a slightly acid taste, is made, and

the molasses is of excellent flavour, and is largely used during the summer for making sweetened water, which is a wholesome and delicious beverage.

"The sugar frequently contains oxide of iron, which it dissolves from the rusty potash kettles in which it is commonly boiled down, and hence it turns tea black. A neat manufacturer will always take care to scour out his kettles with vinegar and sand, so that the sugar may be white. He will also take care not to burn the sirup by urging the fire towards the end of the operation. If his sirup is acid, a little clear lime-water will saturate it, and the lime will principally separate with the molasses or with the scum. The sirup should be skimmed carefully during the operation. It is not worth while, perhaps, to describe the process of refining sugar; but it is perfectly easy to make maple sugar as white as the best double-refined loaf-sugar of commerce. It would, however, lose its peculiar acid flavour, which now distinguishes it from ordinary cane sugar.

"Were it generally known how productive are the groves of sugar maples, we should, I doubt not, be more careful, and not exterminate them from the forest, as is now too frequently done. It is, however, difficult to

spare any forest trees in clearing a farm by fire; but groves in which they abound might be spared from the unrelenting axe of the woodman. Maple-trees may also be cultivated, and will become productive in twenty or thirty years; and it would certainly be one of our most beautiful pledges of regard for posterity to plant groups of maples in convenient situations upon our lands, and to line the road-sides with them. I am sure that such a plan, if carried into effect, would please public taste in more ways than one, and we might be in part disfranchised from dependence on the cane plantations of the West Indies.

"At six stations in Maine there were produced 36,650 lbs. This, at twelve and a half cents a pound, would be worth 4581 dollars.

"It must be also remarked, that the manufacture is carried on at a season of the year when there is little else to be done; and if properly-shaped evaporating vessels were used, a much larger quantity of sugar could be manufactured."

VI.

A YANKEE IN A PLANTER'S HOUSE.

I PAUSED a moment at the gate for a view at the old family mansion. The northern front is not nearly so attractive as the southern. The trees which had been recently planted at my last visit, were now finely grown; and it was evident that another month would make the spacious lawn one of the most beautiful spots in the world. The house was large, painted white, and furnished with dark-green shutters. Huge chimneys were built at both ends outside the house; and, on the northern side, a broad piazza, supported by half a score of columns, extended along the whole length. An hospitable deal bench ran along the weather-boarding; and at one end of the piazza was a sort of shelf attached to the balustrade, on which a neat unpainted bucket, with shining hoops and bail of brass,