TRAVELS IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES



the Juice that runs into the cavity is carried clear of the
tree and runs into vessels placed to receive it gutters are
cut through the bark and part of the wood on the side of
the tree sloping downwards to guide the Juice into the larger
cavity or receptacle in the tree, the juice is boiled down till
it acquires a consistance like syrup and sweetness resembling
Honey in this state it is called Molasses, the boiling con-
tinued as the watery particles exhale it turns thicker and
dries, the fire is then slacked and if they design it in powder
they keep continually stirring it when it grains and pro-
duces a sugar equal to Muscovedo, if not stirred it forms
into a cake of solid -consistence. the time for tapping the
trees is in the spring and fall, a clear frosty night succeeded
by a sunshiny day, the trees bleed the best, when the buds
swell on the tree, the Juice is roapy and the time of making
sugar is over till the Autumn, after the fall of the leaves. -
from this juice they make beer, and vinegar and I am per-
suaded may make spirits, as the sugar with a little careful
management may be made equal if not superior to that
extracted from the Cane. It takes a large quantity of
Juice to a pound of sugar but how much I do not know. I
have been informed that sugar has been made from the
walnut tree in the same manner.'
  March 7th. Rode up to St Asaphs from Col. Bowmans,
I observed a species of the wood pecker which I had not
met with before, the Cock and the hen they are larger than
the large brown the cock had a bright red head with remark-
able large tuft of feathers on the Crown so that it may be
called the Peacock Wood pecker the body and wings White
and black.' I met with a tall tree 6o or 70 feet in the

1 I must think that the sugar of the Ancients that we do not
know at present, and which is entirely lost to us, might have
been the Juice of some such tree as this if not the very same for
I do not imagine the sugar tree confined to America only, but
may be found in the same latitudes elsewhere parallel to those
it grows in here. - Note in Ms.
" One of these birds was shot by my servent, which I took to
be the hen, the feathers on the throat and belly and part of the
                           632