"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 ax 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. "The following statistics will serve as an example of the products of the Sugar Maple in Maine; and it will also be noted that the whole work of making Maple sugar is completed in three or four weeks from the commencement of operations. Lbs. sugar. At the Forks of the Kennebeck, twelve persons made 3,650 On No. 1, 2d Range, one man and a boy made 1,000 In Farmington, Mr. Titcomb made 1,500 In Moscow, thirty families made 10,500 In Bingham, twenty families made 9,000 In Concord, thirty families made 11,000 ________ 36,650 "This, at twelve and a half cents a pound, would be worth $4,581. "It must be also remarked, that the manufacture of Maple sugar 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 made in the season." CHAPTER III. Beech-trees.--Purity, Size, Fruit.--Efforts of Bears after the Nut.--The Uses to which its Leaves are appropriated.--Mr. Lauder's Testimony, &c.--Use of Wood.--Singular Exemption.--The novel Appearance of the Leaves of a Species in Germany.--Chestnut-tree. --Remarkable one on Mount Ætna.--Balm of Gilead.--Willow.--Ash. --Basswood, or Tiel-tree.--The Poplar.--The Hemlock.--Beauties of its Foliage.--Uses.--Hickory.--The Fir-tree.--Spruce-tree.-- Its conical Form.--Uses.--American Larch.--Success of the Dukes of Athol in planting it on the Highlands of Scotland.