rticle
of importation, and is of national consequence. For sugar the world
has hitherto relied on the cane, with the exception of some parts of
India, where the sugar palm yields it much more cheaply. The sugar
cane is, however, a tropical plant, and, of course, its cultivation
must of necessity be limited to such hot countries. France, during the
wars of Napoleon, shut out from her Indian possessions or deprived of
them, commenced making sugar from beets, and it proving unexpectedly
successful and profitable, it has as we have just seen, extended not
only over that empire, but nearly the whole of continental Europe,
where it forms an important item in their system of cultivation and
profit. The manufacture has been attempted in the United States; but
though the facts of the ease and certainty with which the beets may be
grown and their great value for stock has been fully ascertained,
still little progress in the production of sugar from them has been
made there.

MAPLE SUGAR.

There are few trees in the American forest of more value than the
maple (_Acer saccharinum_). As an ornamental tree, it is exceeded by
few; its ashes abound in alkali, and from it a large proportion of the
potash of commerce is produced; and its sap furnishes a sugar of the
best quality, and in abundance. It likewise affords molasses and an
excellent vinegar. In the maple the sugar amounts to five per cent. of
the whole sap. There is no tree whose shape and whose foliage is more
beautiful, and whose presence indicates a more generous, fertile, and
permanent soil than the rock maple: in various cabinet-work its timber
vies with black walnut and mahogany for durability and beauty; and as
an article of fuel its wood equals the solid hickory. Its height is
sometimes 100 feet, but it usually grows to a height varying from
forty to eighty feet. It is bushy, therefore an elegant shade tree.
The maple is indigenous to the forests of America, and wherever there
has been opportunity for a second growth, this tree attains to a
considerable size much sooner than might be imagined. In the course of
ten or fifteen years the maple becomes of a size to produce sugar. The
trees which have come up since the first clearing, produce sap that
yields much more saccharine than the original forest maples.

The whole interior of the northern part of the United States have
relied, and still rely, more on their maple woodlands for sugar than
on any other source; and