MAPLE-SUGAR.
As most persons who have not informed themselves on the subject, imagine that we are indebted to cane-sugar for our main supply, and that maple-sugar is a petty neighborhood matter, not worth the figures employed to represent it, we propose to spend some space in stating the truth on this matter. We will exhibit, 1, the amount produced; 2, the proper way of manufacturing it; 3, the proper treatment of sugar-tree groves.
We shall confine our statistics to the most important Northern and Western States.
| 1. New York produces annually | 10,048,109 lbs. |
| 2. Ohio | 6,363,386 “ |
| 3. Vermont | 4,647,934 “ |
| 4. Indiana | 3,727,795 “ |
| 5. Pennsylvania | 2,265,755 “ |
| 6. New Hampshire | 1,162,368 “ |
| 7. Virginia | 1,541,833 “ |
| 8. Kentucky | 1,377,835 “ |
| 9. Michigan | 1,329,784 “ |
| Total Of nine States | 22,464,799 “ |
| Residue thus—add for Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, Tennessee, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin | 2,030,853 “ |
| 24,495,652 “ |
Something should be subtracted for beet-root and cornstalk-sugar. But on the other hand, the statistics are so much below the truth on maple-sugar, that the deficiency may be set off against beet-root and cornstalk-sugar. That the figures do not more than represent the amount of maple-sugar produced in these States may be presumed from one case. Indiana is set down at 3,727,795; but in the four counties of Washington, Warrick, Posey and Harrison, no account seems to have been taken of this article.
In Marion county, four of the first sugar-making townships, Warren, Lawrence, Centre and Franklin, are not reckoned. If we suppose these four townships to average as much as the others in Marion county, they produced 77,648 lbs., and instead of putting Marion county down at 97,064 it should be 174,712 lbs. It is apparent from this case, that in Indiana the estimate is far below the truth; and if it is half as much so in the other eight States enumerated,[7] then 22,464,799 is not more than a fair expression of the maple-sugar alone.
Lousiana is the first sugar-growing State in the Union. Her produce, by the statistics of 1840, was 119,947,720, or nearly one hundred and twenty million pounds. The States of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, together, add only 645,281 pounds more.
Cane-sugar in the United States 120,593,001 lbs.
Maple “ “ “ 24,495,652 “