SUGAR CULTURE AND MANUFACTURE. Sugar is a awee crystallised substance, most commonly prepared from the expresses juice of the sugar-cane, of which there aro several species ; but some times from beetroot, from the sap of one or more species of maple had from other vegetable productions. Saccharine matter lit intleet one of the most common of vegetable secretions, but it is only fron the above-mentioned substances that sugar has been extracted to am groat extent as an article of commerce ; and of these the sugarcane is by far the most extensively used. The sensation of sweetness is indeed produced not only by many vegetable and animal substances, but also by some of purely chemical character. The muscular parts of all quadrupeds, birds, and fishes, if boiled or roasted soon after death, have a decided though slight degree of sweetness ; which sweetness disappears on the commencement of the spontaneous change which ends in putrefactive decomposition. Glycerin is a sweet substance obtainable from most of the fats or expressed oils, whether animal or vegetable, by the process of saponification. The sweet taste of new milk is occasioned by a saccharine substance called sugar of milk.
Honey-dew, or aphis-sugar, and the honey of the bee, are intermediate between animal and vegetable sugars; because, though derived from vegetable juices, they are modified by digestion in the stomachs of insects. Among vegetables which contain sugar ready formed (though not in a crystallised or separate state), there are several trees from the sap of which it may be obtained in sufficient quantity for human use.
Two of these—the sycamore and the birch—are natives of Britain ; but the sugar which they yield is not sufficient to repay the expense of manufacture. The sugar-maple, which abounds in some parts of North America, yields sugar in such abundance as to be of considerable importance. 3Iany trees of the palm family afford a sweet sap, which may be boiled down to a tolerably solid viscid sugar. Saccharine matter exists in many ripe fruits in great abundance, as is evident not only from their sweet taste, but also from the circumstance that it exudes from some, such as the fig and the grape, in the process of drying. Several roots, particularly of the tuberous or fleshy kind, contain sufficient saccharine matter to be commercially important, either for separating it in a pure state, or in the form of an extract of all the soluble ingredients of the root. Of the latter class liquorice is one of the most important. For the former purpose, attempts have been made upon several fleshy roots employed as.food. 3Iarggmf (in 1747) tried the skirret (a variety of parsnep), the white beet, and the red beet. His experiments were resumed some years afterwards by M. Achard, at the desire of the Prussian government. Probably these and some other early experiments led, in some degree, to the subsequent introduction of the manufacture of beet-root sugar in France under 31. Chaptal.
The above details show how many sources there are from which sugar might bo obtained. None of thew, however, as far as experi ment has shown hitherto, will bear comparison with the sugar-cane in point of cheapness; beetroot sugar indeed has entered into com petition with that from the cane, but only successfully when aided by fiscal regulations. . • History of Cane Sugar.—Unless we suppose the sacred writers to have alluded to it, Herodotus is probably the earliest author who mentioned sugar. Theophrastus describes three kinds of honey—from flowers, from the air (apparently honey-dew), and from canes or reeds; and in another place he describes a reed or cane that grew in moist places in Egypt, which was sweet even to the roots. From some passages in early writers it. would seem that the juice of the cane was used as a drink. The term " honey of canes," which appears to indicate a fluid or semi-fluid consistency, was used by Avicenna, as late as the tenth century. Diosoorides, about the period of the reign of Nero, is said to be the first writer who uses the word Saccharum (aauxapov), or sugar ; but though he gives an accurate description of it, he was evidently unacquainted with the process by which it was prepared. He says "it is in consistency like salt, and it. is brittle between the teeth like salt." Seneca speaks of sugar as honey found on the leaves of canes, which is produced by the dew, or the sweet juice of the cane itself, concreting ; thereby showing the like fgnorauee of its real character. Pliny speaks of sugar as brought from
Arabia, and better from India. " It is," he says, "honey collected from canes, like a gum, white, and brittle between the teeth; the largest is of the size of a hazel-nut. It is used in medicine only." Galen, in the second century, gives a description of sugar almost identical with that of Dioscorides, excepting that he says nothing of its brittleness and resemblance to salt. These qualities are however again mentioned by Paulus iEgineta, in the 7th century, who, following Archigenes, an earlier writer, describes sugar as "the Indian salt, in colour and form like common salt, but in taste and sweetness like honey." Such notices might be extended much further ; but enough has been stated to show that sugar was known, and was an article of commerce, at least as early as the commencement of the Christian era ; and also to prove that its origin was very imperfectly understood by ancient Creek and Roman 'writers. Although more than one writer speaks of sugar as coming from Arabia as wellas India, it was probably not made in the former country. Indeed the early Arabian writers themselves speak of sugar as coming from India. It appears probable that the white sugar-candy of China, which has been very long cele brated for its excellence, was the Indian salt of the Roman authors. The historians of the ernsades describe the sugar-cane as met with by the Crusaders in Syria. One of these, Albertus Agnensis, about the year 1108, says that "sweet honied reeds," which were called Zucra. were found in great quantity in the meadows about Tripoli. These reeds were sucked by the crusaders' army, who were much pleased with their sweet taste ; and our author gives the oldest description extent of the process of extracting sugar from the cane. Another of these historians, Jacobus de Vitriaco, in 1124, says that in Syria reeds grow that are full of honey; by which he understands a sweet juice which, by the pressure of a screw-engine and concreted by fire, becomes sugar. About the same time William of Tyre speaks of sugar as made in the neighbourhood of Tyre, and sent from thence to the farthest parts of the world. As early as the time of the emperor Frederick Barbarossa, sugar was produced in great quantity in Sicily, and used in two dates; either boiled down to the consistence of honey, or boiled further, so as to form a solid body of sugar. About 1306, sugar was made in the countries subject to the Sultan, and also in Cyprus, Rhodes, Amorea, Sicily, and other places belonging to the Christians. The progress made in introducing the sugar-cane, and the process of extracting sugar from it, into the islands of theMediter ranean, into Italy, and into Spain, were derived from the Arabs, and were in some degree connected with the increased communication with the East occasioned by the Crusades. It is stated by Venetian histo rians that in the 12th century Venice could import sugar cheaper from Sicily than from Egypt. The manufacture of sugar was probably introduced into Spain by the Moors. About 1420 the Portuguese took the sugar-cane from Sicily to Madeira ; and probably during the 15th century, it was carried from Spain to the Canaries. From these sources, the cultivation of the sugar-cane, and the art of making sugar, were extended by different nations of Europe to the West Indian islands and the Brazils. Wherever the sugar-cane may have been indigenous, there is no reason to question the fact that the manu facture of sugar, derived originally from China and India, was intro duced into the western world by the Spanish and Portuguese. In I lispaniola, or St. Domingo, there were, as early as 1518, twenty-eight sugar-works, established by the Spaniards. Peter Martyr, who gives this information remarks on the extraordinary growth of the cane in that island; which, for a long period, afforded the principal supply of sugar to Europe. Antwerp, about 1560, received sugar from Spain,— which had it from the Canaries ; and also from Portugal, the latter country deriving it from S. Thom6 and other islands on the African coast, and from Madeira. Sugar was also an article of import from Barbary.