MAPLE SUGAR.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1291, 9 May 1878, Page 3

MAPLE SUGAR.

To the Uditor of the Globe. Sib, —Although I eoniider some of tho proceedings of the Acclimatisation Society very objectionable and subversive of public morals, they may fairly bo credited with a good intention and a desire to add to the resources of the colony in passing a resolution to introduce the sugar maple (Aeer aaeeftarinum) from America, but probably have not considered whether such a difference of climate as there is between North America and New Zealand would not be a bar to its commercial value. The tree would grow well here, but it is questionable if the sap would run, and, without the sap there could be no sugar. The latter paifeof autumn in Ameriei is something like our winter, Jan frost and thaw. When winter sets in the forest is wrapt in frost and snow for four months. Some time in March there is an appearance of spring approaching, by a warmer sun and signs of thawing, and this is the time of year when the backwoodsman, if he has a sugar bush, makes his maple Bugar. He is prepared with the requisite number of troughs or pails—one for each tree —and small spouts or hollowed pieces of wood to guide the sap. He builds a small hut, fixes his cauldron, and goes to work. With 200 trees, in a favorable season, he may probably make lOOOlbs. of sugar. There are circumstances in the bushman's favor at this season ; it is a comparatively idle time, owing to the bad roads and sloppy state of his fields ; and he has an unlimited supply of dry firewood lying about in the forest. But mark what is the kind of weather favorable for sugar-making; it is this—the days must bo bright and sunny and the nights hard freezing. Without frosty nights the sop will not run. If, as sometimes nappens, a thaw sets in early in March, then the sap will not run and no sugar can be made ; there must be sharp frost to check the ascension of the sap. Now it is a question whether, in any part of New Zealand we ever have weather to correspond with the requirements of sugarmaking. My own private opinion is that, with the mild winters here, the sap would quickly ascend and not run, and, consequently, if we depended on the maple for sugar we should have to go without. It would not be amiss to try the experiment as to the running of sop by boring some sycamores. The American continent has been colonised, more or less, for about three hundred years, and the natives of America made maple sugar before the arrival of the colonists. Is it not singular that, in all these years, if maplesugar making was profitable, that it was not introduced into Europe—into England, for instance, where labor and fuel were cheap ? The fact is, maple sugar is tho backwoodsman's sugar; he has the facilities and time for making it. With the disappearance of the backwoods maple sugar has become a thing of the past. You may travel from San Francisco to New York and not get a taste of it. Fancy the large piece of ground 200 trees would cover. Then there is firing and attendance night and day for many days. Add to these the uncertainty of the sap running, and you must perceive that it could not compete with cane or beetroot. As a timber tree the sugar maple might be introduced, if not in the colonies already} it is considered equal, or perhaps superior, to sycamore. Surely a few shillings' worth of seed would be sufficient to stock the whole colony! I am as desirous as anyone of seeing the resources of the colony added to by useful products, but having doubts in my mind about the utility here of the sugar maple, I have made these few remarks to induce inquiry, to that persons may make sure, before planting their ground, that they are not entering into a delusive speculation. Yours, <fcc, PERFGRTNATOR.