SC - OT, places

[jeffrey stewart heilveil]

Deirdre wanted to know about sugar maples.  Here's what I know.

Sugar maple (Acer Saccharum Marshall) is indigenous to the Eastern United
States.   In 1663, an English chemist named Robert Boyle had this to say:
"There is in some parts of New England a kind of tree...whose juice that weeps
out of its incisions, if it be permitted slowly to exhale away the superfluous
moisture, doth congeal into a sweet and saccharin substance, and the like was
confirmed to me by the agent of the great and populous colony of
Massachusetts."  Maple sugar was one of the secrets taught to the colonists by
the native populations.  I have not located any sources which state that maple
sugar was transported back to the old sod in period, although the lumber was
very much a part of the colonial raw materials trade after 1625-ish.  I would
assume that somewhere in the "great and populous colony of Massachusetts"
there will be manifests, but since the colony didn't exist prior to 1620,
sugar maple would only be suitable for Native American and Colonial re-
enactors.

Walk in peace,
Wolfmother


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