The beets used for sugar making are raised from specially grown and carefully selected seed, for their value depends not on their size but on the density of their juice—sugar factories gen erally paying the grower according to the sugar percentage in an average of his crop. The white .elongated type is generally conceded to be the best producer and a root weight of from fourteen to twenty-four ounces as the most generally satisfactory.
The beets are as a rule transported by wagon to the mills, there to be washed, sliced and placed in the diffusion tanks.
In some parts of France and Germany, the labor of carrying the beets to the mills is avoided by a system of underground piping from the beet farms to a central factory. Each district has a diffusion apparatus to extract the juice, which is then treated with a small quantity of lime and pumped into pipes leading into large vats in the factory.
One hundred pounds of the best Silesian beet-roots will yield an average of about ten pounds of sugar—about half of fine quality and the balance of minor grades.
The value of the crop is increased by the fact that the pulp after the extraction of the 'juice is still an excellent cattle food.
Other Sources of Sugar.
The general assumption is that only plants such as the sugar-cane, beet and sugar-maple will yield sugar, but in fact a great many others con tain it, frequently in considerable quantities. To extract and manufacture crystallized sugar at a price which the general public is willing to pay, requires, however, a plant easily cultivated, bountiful in crop and possessing a large per centage of sugar in a form that lends itself to crystallization, and, so far, only the sugar-beet and sugar-cane have responded to the test well enough to interest the civilized world.
The sugar obtained from the sap of the North American Maple tree is omitted from this consideration. It is a decided commercial suc cess—the "crop" is not only always sold to the last ounce, thit.a great abundance of imitations are marketed in its name—but it is too liMited in quantity to enter into calculation as a general sugar product. Its delicate flavor classes it rather as a natural confection (see article on MAPLE SUGAR AND MAPLE SYRUP ) . The product of the Sugar Palm is also thoroughly desirable, but the total
output is comparatively small.
-- From time to time numerous fruits, grains and vegetables have seemed to offer commercial possibilities—a fairly good sugar can, for example, be obtained from bananas ; sorghum a few years ago was hailed as the coming American sugar crop and for a short period did keep several factories busy ; the juice of the birch tree has been used in Scandinavia and Scotland, and both Europe and America have experimented with the sugar-melon, etc., but none of these has lived up to first hopes, nor reached the point of competition for the general market.
Sugar as a Food.
Sugar was formerly dealt with rather harshly by medical experts, it being charged with injury to both teeth and stomach. It is now generally acknowledged as a food item of great value. Used in moderation, it has been proved that it is a flesh and bone builder for children and important as a substance for supplying energy under conditions of continued physical strain—for soldiers on long marches, etc.
This endorsement by physicians is particu larly directed to the pure sugar itself—eaten plain, dissolved in water or contained in choco late, etc. It does not extend to an extensive diet of sweetened articles such as pastry.
The United Kingdom is the greatest per capita consumer, averaging about ninety-three and a half pounds annually for each member of the population. The United States comes next with about eighty-two pounds. Then, in the order named, are Denmark, Switzerland, Nor way, Sweden, Holland, Germany and France. The smallest per capita consumption is in Italy, with only about seven and a half pounds, and the Balkan Peninsula, with less than seven pounds.