Untitled Letter on Incisions for Extracting Maple Syrup

      MR. MINNS, 
The enclosed is taken from a Boston paper, and if you
    should be of opinions, as I am, that the publication
    of it here at this time (the season for making ma-
    ple sugar) may probably be of service to those who
    are engaged in the manufacture of that article, you 
    will perhaps oblige some of your readers, by giving
    it a place in your useful paper.
                                                                       P. J.
                                  Philadelphia, Dec. 20.
    A Gentleman who has visited Asia, suggests to his
fellow citizens who are extracting sugar from the 
Maple Tree, that it may be more advantageous to
them to make the incision higher than they do at pre-
sent ; for the Asiatics always cut the Palmyra tree
just below the first branches, and of the liquor they
make both sugar and an intoxicating drink. The
saccharine juice is formed by the combination of the
particular property of the maple tree, with the water
which rises from the earth, it is natural to suppose
that the present method of collecting the sap just a-
bove ground before it has undergone much com-
mixture, will be attended with its present result,
viz. a great quantity of water and very little sirrup.
    If upon experiment it shall be found that more
sugar is made from a less quantity of sap when the
incision is made from a less quantity of sap when the
incision is made high up, one great advantage will
be that less labour will be required to collect the
sap and to evaporate the water.
                              _______