Although the settler or explorer who directs his steps to North America has no palms to supply him with food, drink, and clothing, he will find other members of the vegetable kingdom ready to his hand.
Maple sugar is of vast importance to the settler in the backwoods, as it serves not only as a substitute for cane sugar, but is not unfrequently used instead of salt. It is obtained by treating the sap of the Acer saccharinum, or sugar maple. The range of this valuable tree is very extensive. It is met with, in greater or less abundance, from the neighbourhood of St. Jean in Upper Canada to Virginia. It abounds in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Vermont, and New Hampshire, some of the trees being found to reach 80ft. in height. Sugar-making may begin early in the month of April, or, in fact, directly the sap begins to rise. Frosty nights, followed by warm, genial days, are the most favourable for the process of sap drawing, which is proceeded with as follows: One or more auger holes, up to four, are made, at a convenient distance from the ground, in the trunk of each tree to be treated. Into each of these holes a little hollow shoot or tube of bark is thrust, which conveys the sap as it flows into vessels placed for its reception. Each tree will produce from 15gals. to 20gals. of sap, and 5gals. of sap will yield about 1lb. of sugar. When the vessels under the spouts are nearly full the sap should be ladled from them into pails and carried to a shed, in which a large barrel, with the upper head removed, has been set up as a reservoir. In this it is allowed to remain at rest until all foreign substances have settled to the bottom. It is now quickly drawn off and conveyed to the boiler, which, in the absence of a proper arrangement, may be a large camp kettle, in which it is heated steadily until evaporated down to the consistence of treacle, when it is again removed and placed in an open vessel to cool. When cold, it is strained through a flannel bag into a second boiler, where it is again heated, clarified with eggs, a little bullock’s blood, or new milk. The boiling is now continued until a little of the syrup, taken on the point of a clean chip and held in the air, shows a disposition to assume a crystalline appearance, when the heating process is stopped and the charge withdrawn from the pot.
It is now in the candy state, and is cast into a variety of quaint forms by the use of small moulds prepared for the purpose. If granulated sugar is required, a small barrel is set up at a moderate distance from the ground; the upper head is removed, and the lower one bored full of gimlet holes. On the charge of candy being thrown into this, all the fluid portions drain away in a state of thin molasses through the holes into a tub or box placed below the barrel, in which the sugar is soon found fit for use.
Gum sugar is made by throwing the candy when hot from the pot out on the snow. This treatment has the property of checking crystallisation and converting the sugar into a tough material much used for chewing.
A settler’s family in a good maple district can, by the use of proper sized boilers, &c., make upwards of 700lb. of good serviceable sugar in one favourable season.
Manna, to prepare.
Manna is a substance well worth the attention of the explorer, as it is, curiously enough, produced by trees and shrubs of totally different orders in different geographical ranges. The Arabs and Persians obtain a kind, known as “Guzunjbeen,” from a species of tamarisk called the “Guz bush.” The description known on the Arabian coast, and in the district surrounding Mount Sinai, by the name of “Toofra,” is also procured from the tamarisk thickets, where it drains from the ends of the thorns, and falls on the dry leaves, small twigs, and sticks which have fallen to the ground; it there congeals into hard masses, and is in that condition gathered for use. It is by the Arabs consumed as a substitute for honey, and is eaten on bread or other food. The “camel thorn” of India and Syria is manna yielding, producing the description known in the East as “Al haj.” The so-called Beiruk honey is in reality a kind of manna which is yielded by a low stunted tree, not unlike a dwarf aspen, which is known as the “Ghrab bush.” In the Uzbec country manna is obtained from a small tree whose trunk is divided into knots by a series of annular rings. In Arabia, the “Ashur” is the manna-bearing plant. In Mesopotamia, it flows from a species of oak, and is most abundant on such trees as have the largest share of gall nuts. A medicinal and highly valued manna is obtained in some districts in Persia from a peculiar willow, which grows in moist ground. A kind of larch furnishes the Manna Brigantica, and in the Lebanon district it flows from the cedars. In Europe, the ash is the manna bearer, and three kinds are found to produce it more or less abundantly. The two most commonly treated for its obtainment are Fraxinus rotundifolia and Ornus Europæa. To obtain the manna from these trees incisions are made in the bark with a knife; the first cut is made near the ground, and the others at 2in. or 3in. apart, the cuts being 1in. long and ½in. deep. These cuts are made at the rate of one per day, mounting upward, cut by cut, in each row. Immediately below these perpendicular cuts
-shaped incisions are made in such a way that each cross cut may receive and hold fast the end of a leaf gathered from the tree, which serves to conduct the sap away from the trunk and allow of its dropping into Indian fig leaves placed on the ground for its reception. The Indian fig leaf, cultivated for the purpose, has the peculiar property of drying with its edges curled up, rendering it extremely useful as a sap receiver. August is the month usually selected for tapping the manna trees, and dry warm weather is most favourable for the operation, as rain dissolves and destroys the congealing mass of produce. The manna collected from the bark by scraping, after having run in long tears down the trunk, is considered very inferior to that caught in the fig leaves, and is, consequently, sold at a much lower price.
A great number of fruit, berry, and nut bearing trees and bushes are to be found on various portions of the North-American territories. Further south, the productions assume a more tropical character. Here we are merely dealing with some of the forest stores of the north and north-west. The following is but a brief list, as our space is limited: