above proportion, is found to be excessively soluble in alcohol; so much so, that yellow sugar can be rendered white in a few minutes by placing it in an inverted cone, open at the top, with small holes at the bottom, and by pouring on the base of the cone a quantity of alcohol.  This should filtrate through until the sugar is white; it should then be dried and re-dissolved in boiling water, and again evaporated until it becomes dense enough to crystallise.  Then pour it into the cones again, and let it harden.  By this process a very white sample of sugar may be made, and both the alcohol and acids will be thoroughly dispelled with the vapor.

The process of making maple sugar it will be seen is very simple and easily performed.  The trees must be of suitable size, and within a convenient distance of the place where the operations of boiling, &c., are to be performed.  When gathered, the sap should be boiled as early as possible, as the quality of the sugar is in a great degree dependent on the newness or freshness of the sap.  There is a tendency to acidity in this fluid which produces a quick effect in preventing the making of sugar; and which, when the sap is obliged to be kept for many hours in the reservoirs, must be counteracted by throwing into them a few quarts of slaked lime.  During the time of sugar making, warm weather, in which the trees will not discharge their sap, sometimes occurs, and the buckets become white and slimy, from the souring of the little sap they contain.  In this case they should be brought to the boiler and washed out carefully with hot water, and a handful of lime to each.

In reducing the sap, the great danger to be apprehended is from burning the liquid after it is made to the consistence of molasses, since, when this is done, it is impossible to convert it into sugar; a tough, black, sticky mass, of little value, being the result.  Indeed, constant care and attention is required to produce a first-rate article:  for though sugar may be made in almost any way where the sap can be procured, yet unless the strictest care is observed in the processes, in gathering and boiling the sap, clarifying the syrup, and in converting the syrup to sugar, a dirty inferior article will be made, instead of the beautiful and delicious sweet which the maple, properly treated, is sure to yield.

The quantity of sugar produced in a year varies considerably from the same trees.  The cause of this difference is to be found in the depth of snow, continued cold, or a sudden transition from cold to warm, thus abridging the period of sugar-making.  A sharp frost at night, with clear warm days, is the most favorable to the sugar-maker.  Perhaps four pounds of sugar from a tree may be a pretty fair average of seasons generally, although we have known the growth to exceed six pounds, and sink as low as three.  A man will take care of one hundred trees easily, during the season of sugar, which usually lasts from about the middle of March into April, perhaps employing him twenty days in the whole.  Dr. Jackson, in his Report of the Maine Geological Survey, gives the following instances of the production of sugar in that State:—­