Comparison of Cane and Beet Sugar.— When highly refined, no one can distinguish be tween cane and beet sugar as they are one and the same thing. Between the crude or raw beet and cane sugars there is a great difference, the latter being edible while the former is not, as it possesses a very disagreeable odor and taste. Cane sugar molasses is good for culinary pur poses, beet sugar molasses is not. Cane juice contains (reducing sugars), but beet juice does not, though the latter contains raffi nose and the former does not. In Louisiana about 20 tons per acre is an average cane crop, and 15 to 16 an average beet crop in the United States, Cane is worth $3 to $4 per ton and beets $4 to $4.50. Cane costs $30 to $35 per acre and beets $25 to $30. The sucrose content will vary in Louisiana from 10 to 16 per cent, and from 12 to 18 per cent in the beets in the United States. The cost of the production of a ton of sugar is $50 to $75, whether from cane or beets.
Palm The palm-sugar industry of India is a very old one, but insignificant com pared with the sugarcane industry of that coun try. A fair estimate places the annualproduc tion of palm sugar about 100,000 tons of 2,204.5 pounds. The sugar palms are planted on dry land, and one planting will produce sugar from large tree will yield from 30 to 40 pounds of sugar annually and 800 trees is considered a valuable possession. The sap is collected daily, mixed with a little lime and evaporated in open vessels in a very crude way. The boiling is continued until the sap is a thick syrupy con sistency or until it forms, on cooling, a solid mass. The solidifying or the last stages of evaporation is sometimes accomplished by ex posure to the hot sun in that climate. The syrup is sometimes sold under the name of date-honey. This has been known for a very long time as an article of commerce.
Maple The variety of maple tree (Ater barbatum) is the one from which sugar is chiefly obtained. This tree grows wild in the forest or is cultivated in Ohio, Indiana, New York, Vermont and other northeastern States and to some extent in Canada. It is only within the last few decades that the trees have been cultivated to any great extent. A tree is 30 to 40 years old before it yields the maximum amount of sugar. A short tree with broad. spreading branches is said to produce larger yields and richer quality of sap than the tall ones with less foliage. The sugar period is from January to April. The sap begins to flow at the break-up of winter. So in one section the
sap may flow as early as January while in the colder sections it may not flow before March. The flow lasts from six weeks to two months. The sap, or sugar, may be extracted from the tree in a manner similar to that of extracting it from the palm, but the triangular hole has proved to be more injurious than a small round hole. The general custom is to bore two to four holes in a tree, from two to four feet above the ground, with a three-quarter-inch augur. These holes are placed to southern exposure and are slightly inclined upward. In the hole is arranged, water-tight, a stale made of wood or metal on which a tin pail or wooden bucket is hung to catch the sap. The flow of sap ceases with the budding of the tree. The sap is a very pure sugar juice containing from 2 to 4 per cent of sugar, the average being about 3.5 per cent. The sap contains, in addition to the sugar, other substances in solution, some of which are of an aromatic nature and these latter give to maple sugar its splendid flavor for which it is so highly prized as a material for making table syrup. The fact that the sap is of such a high degree of purity makes the manufacture of maple sugar very simple. The sap collected in the pails is poured through a strainer into a storage tank. From this tank the sap is drawn into vats or pans, usually made of Russia iron, 2.5 feet wide and about 5 feet long. These pans are set on grate bars in brick furnaces. The fuel used is wood, one cord of which is sufficient to evaporate the water from 100 pounds of sugar. The sap is evaporated with but little or no clarification except the removal of the scum as it rises to the top during the process of boiling. The cooking is continued until the sap is of a syrupy consistency or until it begins to grain; in the former case it is sold as syrup, in the latter, it is stirred while cooling in order to produce a soft granular sugar which is put on the market and sold for making table syrup. The annual production is estimated at 15,000 to 20,000 tons.
Sorghum and Maize Sugar.— Many ex periments have been made to produce sugar from sorghum, but in all the results have not been profitable. There is now very little, if any, sugar made from sorghum, though there is con siderable syrup. Maize contains 9 to 12 per cent sugar, but impurities along with it have pot been successfully understood and no method exists by which this sugar can be profitably extracted.