a return of profits as any other branch of farm business.  It is certainly an object of great national interest to the inhabitants of our North American Colonies, that they should supply their own market with such products as their highly-favored country is capable of producing.  Sugar is an article which will ever find a ready sale at highly-remunerating prices, provided that it be properly manufactured and brought into market in good condition.  It requires a little outlay at first to purchase buckets, cisterns, and boilers, to stock a sugar bush; but by carefully using the above necessary apparatus, they will last for a very long period.  A farmer can supply himself with the suitable materials for performing the sugar business without any cost further than his own labor.  The spring is the season of the year that everything should be put in readiness,—­even the wood should be chopped and drawn to the spot, so that when the sap commences to run, there may be no impediments in the way to hinder the complete success of the business.

Large tracts of land in the Ottawa district are covered with the true sugar maple.  It is found in great numbers in the eastern townships of Lower Canada, where considerable forests of miles in extent contain nothing else, and in other places it is mixed with various trees.  There is scarcely a spot in Lower Canada where it is not to be met with.  Capt.  Marryatt has stated that there were trees enough on the shores of Lakes Huron and Superior, to supply the whole world with sugar.  In the United States, the manufacture of the sugar was first attempted about the year 1752, by some farmers of New England, as a branch of rural economy.  This gradually spread wherever the tree was known.  Now it forms an article of food throughout a large portion of the country.  Almost every farmer prepares sugar enough from the trees in his neighbourhood for the consumption of his family during the year, and has often a surplus for sale.  It is much cheaper than muscovado, being sold at from 2d. to 31/2d. per pound, whilst common muscovado cannot be bought for less than 41/2d. to 5d. per pound.

The province of Canada produced nearly ten million pounds in 1852, 6,190,694 being made in Lower Canada, and 3,581,505 in Upper Canada.  The quantity made in Lower Canada in 1849 was only about 1,537,093 lbs.  The maple sugar product of the Canadas in 1848 was officially stated as follows:—­

                          lbs. 
  Upper Canada 4,160,667
  Lower Canada 2,303,158
                        ---------
                        6,463,835

This product is therefore of immense importance to the British North American provinces, all of which, under a judicious system, might be made to produce vastly increased quantities of this wholesome and valuable commodity.

The importation of sugar in Canada may very safely be computed at L40,000 per annum, and the whole of this amount of money could be retained in the country if the people would only look well to the matter.