Stránka:book 1922.djvu/476

446 The Book of Woodcraft Box Elder or Ash-Leaved Maple. (Acer Negundo) A small tree, 40 or 50 up to 70 feet high, found chiefly along streams. Wood pale, soft, close-grained, light. A cubic foot weighs 27 lbs. Poor fuel. Makes paper-pulp. Leaflets 2 to 4 inches long. Sap yields a delicate white sugar. Chiefly in Mississippi Valley and north to Manitoba, but in the eastern states as an escape from cultivation. "It was usual to make sugar from maples, but several other trees were also tapped by the Indians. From the birch and ash was made a dark-colored sugar, with a somewhat bitter taste, which was used for medicinal purposes. The box-elder yielded a beautiful white sugar, whose only fault was that there was never enough of it." ("Indian Boyhood," p. 32, by Charles A. Eastman.)