The green tint of the leaves is
darker on some trees than it is on others, and in autumn they become,
often before the first touch of the frost, of a splendid orange or gold,
sometimes of a bright scarlet or crimson, color, each tree commonly
retaining from year to year the same color or colors, and differing
somewhat from every other. The most beautiful and valuable maple-wood is
taken from this tree. It is known as 'curled maple' and 'bird's-eye
maple,' and the common variety looks like satin-wood. In the curled
maple the fibres are in waves instead of in straight lines, and the
surface seems to change with alternate light and shade; in the
bird's-eye, irregular snarls of fibres look like roundish projections
rising from hollow places, each one resembling the eye of a bird.
Buckets, tubs and many useful things are made of the straight variety,
and for lasts it is considered better than any other kind of wood. The
curled and the bird's-eye are largely used for furniture."
"But isn't it a shame," said Clara, "to spoil the maple-sugar by making
the trees into chairs and things?"
"You would not think so," replied her governess, "if you needed the
'chairs and things' more than you need the sugar. But the supply of
trees seems to be sufficient for both purposes."
"Does the sugar come right out of the tree when people tap on it with a
hammer?" asked Edith, whose ideas of sugar-making were rather crude.
"You blessed baby!" cried Malcolm, with a shout of laughter.
Pages:
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33