fifteen hours in four and twenty, (allowing him to consume not quite half a minute every time he uses his box,) will waste about five whole days of every year of his life in this useless, and unwholesome practice. But when we add to the profitable use to which this time might have been applied, the expences of Tobacco, pipes, snuff and spitting boxes-and of the injuries which are done to the cloathing, during a whole life, the aggregate sum would probably amount to several hundred dollars. To a labouring man this would be a decent portion for a son or daughter, while the same sum, saved by a man in affluent circumstances, would have enabled him by a contribution to a public charity to have lessened a large portion of the ignorance, or misery of mankind. In reviewing the account that has been given of the disagreeable and mischievous effects of Tobacco, we are led to enquire, what are its uses upon our globe, for we are assured that nothing, exists in vain. Poison is a relative term, and the most noxious plants have been discovered to afford sustenance to certain animals. But what animal besides man, will take Tobacco into its mouth? Horses, Cows, Sheep, Cats, Dogs, and even Hogs refuse to taste it. Flies, Musquetoes, and the Moth are chased from our cloaths by the smell of it. But let us not arraign the wisdom and economy of nature in the production of this plant. Modern Travellers have at last discovered that it constitutes the food of a solitary and filthy wild beast, well known in the deserts of Africa, by the name of the Rock GOAT. I shall conclude these observations by relating an Anecdote of the late Dr. Franklin. A few months before his death, he declared to one of his friends that he had never used Tobacco in any way in the course of his long life, and that he was dis posed to believe there was not much advantage to be derived from it, for that he had never met with a man who used it, who advised him to follow his example. AN ACCOUNT OF THE SUGAR MAPLE-TREE OF THE UNITED PHILOSO DEAR SIR, IN obedience to your request, I have sat down to communicate to our society, through the medium of a letter to you, a short account of the Sugar Maple-Tree of the United States, together with such facts and remarks as I have been able to collect, upon the methods of obtaining sugar from it, and upon the advantages both public and private, of this Sugar. The Acer Sacharinum of Linnæus, or the Sugar Maple-tree, grows in great quantities in the western counties of all the Middle States of the American Union. Those which grow in New-York and Pennsylvania yield the sugar in a greater quantity than those which grow on the waters of the Ohio. These trees are generally found mixed with the Beech, (a) Hemlock, (b) White and water Ash, (c) the Cucumber tree, (d) Linden, (e) Aspen, (f) Butter Nut, (g) and Wild Cherry trees (h). They sometimes appear in groves covering five or six acres in a body, but they are more commonly interspersed with some, or all of the forest trees which have been mentioned. From 30 to 50 trees are generally found upon an acre of ground. They grow only in the richest soils and frequently in stony ground. Springs of the purest water abound in their neighbourhood. They are, when fully grown, as tall as the white and black oaks, and from two to three feet in diameter.* They put forth a beautiful white blossom in the Spring before they show a single leaf. The colour of the blossom distinguishes them from the acer rubrum, or the common maple, which affords a blossom of a red colour. The wood of the Sugar Maple-tree is extremely inflammable, and is prefered upon that account by hunters and surveyors for fire wood. Its small branches are so much impregnated with sugar as to afford support to the cattle, horses, and and sheep of the first settlers during the winter, before they are able to cultivate forage for that purpose. Its ashes afford (a) Fagus Ferruginea. (b) Pinus abies. (c) Fraxinus Americana. (d) Magnolia acuminata. (e) Tilia Americana. (f) Populus tremula.. (g) Juglans alba (oblonga.) (h) Prunus Virginiana, of Linnæus. *Baron La Hontan, in his voyage to North America, gives the following account of the Maple-tree in Canada. After describing the black Cherry-tree, some of which he says are as tall as the loftiest oaks, and as big as a hogshead, he adds, "The Maple-tree is much of the same height "and bulk. It bears no resemblance to that sort we have in "Europe." a great quantity of pot ash, exceeded by few, or perhaps by none of the trees that grow in the woods of the United States. The tree is supposed to arrive at its full growth in the woods in twenty years. It is not injured by tapping; on the contrary, the oftner it is tapped, the more syrup is obtained from it. In this respect it follows a law of animal secretion. A single tree has not only survived, but flourished after forty-two tappings in the same number of years. The effects of a yearly discharge of sap from the tree in improving and increasing the sap, is demonstrated from the superior excellence of those trees which have been perforated in an hundred places, by a small woodpecker which feeds upon the sap. These trees after having been wounded in this way, distil the remains of their juice on the ground, and afterwards acquire a black colour. The sap of these trees is much sweeter to the taste than that which is obtained from trees which have not been previously wounded, and it affords more sugar. From twenty-three gallons and one quart of sap procured in twenty hours from only two of these dark coloured trees, Arthur Noble, Esq. of the state of New-York, obtained four pounds and thirteen ounces of good grained sugar. A tree of an ordinary size yields in a good season from twenty to thirty gallons of sap, from which are made from five to six pounds of sugar. To this there are sometimes remarkable exceptions. Samuel Low, Esq. a Justice of Peace in Montgomery county, in the state of New-York, informed Arthur Noble, Esq. that he had made twenty pounds and one ounce of sugar between the 14th and 23d of April, in the year 1789, from a single tree that had been tapped for several successive years before. From the influence which culture has upon forest and other trees, it has been supposed, that by transplanting the Sugar Maple-Tree into a garden, or by destroying such other trees as shelter it from the rays of the Sun, the quantity of the sap might be increased; and its quality much improved. I have heard of one fact which favours this opinion. A farmer in Northampton county, in the state of Pennsylvania, planted a number of these trees above twenty years ago in his meadow from three gallons of the sap of which he obtains every year a pound of sugar. It was remarked formerly that it required five or six gallons of the sap of the trees which grow in the woods, to produce the same quantity of sugar. Trees which The sap distils from the wood of the tree. have been cut down in the winter for the support of the domestic animals of the new settlers, yield a considerable quantity of sap as soon as their trunks and limbs feel the rays of the Sun in the spring of the year. It is in consequence of the sap of these trees being equal ly diffused through every part of them, that they live three years after they are girdled, that is, after a circular incision is made through the bark into the substance of the tree for the purpose of destroying it. It is remarkable that grass thrives better, under this tree in a meadow, than in situations exposed to the constant action of the Sun. Nn |