and engraving399. Bain (1890) also noted that 
     
     ”the Indians make axe-handles and baskets of it”. 
     
     There was also some exportation of the timber.400 
     
    
   
   
    
     Maple trees produced an additional product that 
     
     was matched by no other tree: maple sugar, and 
     
     the production of sugar from maple trees was 
     
     commented on by many recorders“°‘. Though most 
     
     did not specify the species, it is likely that they 
     
     had in mind primarily the sugar maple (A. 
     
     saccharum). However, both Stewart (1806) and 
     
     Sutherland (1861) observed that A. rubrum also 
     
     yielded sugar, though Stewart said that the sugar 
     
     from the 'white maple’ [i.e. A. rubrum] was not so 
     
    
   
   
    
     rich in quantity as that of the ’rock maple’.402 
     
    
   
   
    
     The use of the maple tree as a source of sugar 
     
     seems to have been greatest during the early 
     
     colonial period.403 For example, in 1796 John 
     
     Cambridge recorded that "many families make two 
     
     or three hundred pound weight of sugar404 in the 
     
     early part of the spring before the snow is thawed 
     
    
   
   
    
     in the woods”.405 And John Stewart, who gives 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     399 Bain 1890. Benjamin Chappell (1775-1818) used maple, 
     
    
   
   
    
     though without specifying the species; for the following machinery: 
     
     “cogs for Mr Colbeck" [i.e. for the mill] (in 1778); "screws“ and “quil 
     
     tubes" (presumably parts of a spinning wheel) (1798); “spindles for 
     
     the grindstone” (1798); “horses" (1799, 1801, 1803) and “staves for 
     
     the mill trundles“ (1805). 
     
    

    
     ‘00 Hill (1839) recorded that “some [rock or bird's-eye maple] is 
     
     sent annually to England where it is used for cabinet work". 
     
     Seventy-five years earlier Holland (1764) had written to Lord 
     
     Hillsborough of the Board of Trade in London, saying that he would 
     
     send him “a few planks of curled maple" — presumably to act as 
     
     trial pieces. 
     
    

    
     ‘0‘ Holland 1765 (October): (he added that the sugar was 
     
     ”reckoned medicinal"); Anon. 1771; [Clark] 1779; Ritter 1780; 
     
     [Cambridge] 1796?; Walsh 1803; Stewart 1806; Anon. 1808; 
     
     Anon. 1818; MacGregor 1828; Hill 1839; Lawson 1851; Bagster 
     
     1861; Sutherland 1861; Bain 1890. All mention the production of 
     
     maple sugar rather than maple syrup. which they presumably at 
     
     that time did not have the means to preserve and store. Stewart 
     
     (1806) (p. 44, not extracted) also noted that “very good vinegar" 
     
     was made by fermenting the concentrated sap with yeast. 
     
    
   
   
    
     ‘02 A similar comment was made by Perley (1847) in his Report 
     
    
   
   
    
     on the Forest Trees of New Brunswick. He noted that for Acer 
     
     rubrum “the product of a given measure [of sap] was only half as 
     
     great“ as that of the sugar maple. 
     
    

    
     ‘03 Apart from the British records cited here it is appropriate to note 
     
     that the only record of sugar-making that I came across in the 
     
     records of the French period for the island was Jean-Pierre Roma's 
     
     mention of “/'herab/e qui donne du sucre” [the maple that yields 
     
     sugar] in a list he made of the island's trees in 1750 (see Sobey 
     
     2002; pp. 89 and 92). 
     
    
   
   
    
     ‘04 [Cambridge] 1796?. if Bain’s (1890) figure of four pounds of 
     
     sugar per tree (see footnote 410) can be applied to the trees of a 
     
     century before, this would mean that in 1796 50 to 75 trees were 
     
     being tapped per family. 
     
    
   
   
    
     “”5 On 14 March 1773 Benjamin Chappell (1775-1818) recorded 
     
     at Elizabethtown that ”the Maple trees in the woods just begin to 
     
    
   
   
    
     201 
     
    
   
   
    
     an extended description of the process of 
     
     extracting the sap from the trees and boiling it 
     
     down to sugar‘ws, noted that in 1806 "the greatest 
     
     part of the inhabitants supply themselves with all 
     
     the sugar they consume", with many having ”a 
     
     good deal to dispose of". However, by 1828 John 
     
     MacGregor used the word ”formerly” when he said 
     
     that ”a considerable quantity of sugar was 
     
     procured by the inhabitants, [but] at present there 
     
     is scarcely any made except by the Acadians and 
     
     lndians”4°7. Seven years later, Samuel Hill, based 
     
     at Cascumpec, wrote in similar vein that though 
     
     sugar ”is manufactured by the older settlers, 
     
     especially the Acadians and those of highland 
     
     descent, [it] is rarely sold”, adding that ”the 
     
     more recent English settlers value their time too 
     
     highly, to employ it in the manufacture of an 
     
     article, which is but a poor substitute for what the 
     
     produce of their farms will well enable them to 
     
     purchase”“°8. Apart from this economic cum 
     
     cultural factor, another factor contributing to the 
     
     decline in sugar production was likely to have been 
     
     ecological: namely, the disappearance of the 
     
     island’s sugar maple forests as a result of land 
     
     clearance. Evidence for this is found in Bagster's 
     
     comment in 1861 that sugar making occurred only 
     
     in those districts where maples ”have been spared 
     
     in sufficient numbers to furnish the requisite 
     
     quantity for sugar making"“°9. Despite this, the 
     
     production of maple sugar was still recorded as 
     
     occurring some thirty years later by Bain (1890) — 
     
     in fact he said that the annual sugar production of 
     
     the island at that time was some 25,000 
     
    
   
   
    
     pounds”. 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     run in juice", but he does not record that he himself was ever 
     
     involved in the making of maple sugar. 
     
    
   
   
    
     “’6 See Stewart (1806). (pp. 42-45 not extracted). An even more 
     
     extensive description is given by Perley (1847) for New Brunswick 
     
     (pp. 139-41). 
     
    

    
     ‘07 MacGregor 1828. Although it is clear that the first European 
     
     settlers had learned to tap maple trees from the Mi’kmaq (though 
     
     for the British this may have been indirectly via the Acadians), the 
     
     only written evidence that l have found for the Mi'kmaq of the 
     
     island continuing to make maple sugar for their own use or for sale 
     
     is that of MacGregor (1828) cited above. There is also Ritter’s 
     
     (1780) comment that the Mi'kmaq were bringing sugar over to 
     
     Charlottetown from Tatamagouche in Nova Scotia for sale. This 
     
     may have been a single occurrence connected with the presence 
     
     of an unusually large military garrison in Charlottetown that year as 
     
     a result of the American rebellion; combined with the winter 
     
     stranding of some 211 men from Ritter's ship, the Archer (see 
     
     Bumsted 1987; pp. 74; 77, 79). 
     
    
   
   
    
     408 
     
    
   
   
    
     Hill 1839. 
     
    
   
   
    
     ‘09 Bagster1861. 
     
     “0 Since Bain said that each tree yielded "about four pounds of 
     
     sugar" (a figure that Perley (1847) also gives for New Brunswick), 
     
     we may estimate that some 6,250 maple trees were being tapped 
     
     on the island at that time.