Sugar-Candy.—This is the only kind of refined sugar made in China and India; and is made of the finest quality by the Chinese, who export it in considerable quantities. Two sorts are met with at Canton, nailed, respectively, Chinchew and Canton ; the former being the produce of the province of Fokicn, and the latter of that of Canton.
Of these, the former is by far the best. Chinese sugar-candy is con sumed, to the almost total exclusion of other sugar, by the Europeans at the settlements In the East. The process of making it is briefly described under Caser.
Beet-root Saiger.—The process of manufacturing sugar from beet is described under Ilesv. The manufacture was commenced in Europe chiefly through the high price of colonial sugar, owing liartly to war and partly to taxation. The early attempts were disastrous : but within the last few years the manufacture has greatly extended. Sto116, of Berlin, estimated the quantity of beet sugar exported from the countries where it was made, at about 2,300,000 cwt. annually ; but this aftbrds no index to the quantity utadc and emanated in those countries. It Is known that 20,000,000 centners of beet-root have been used for the manufacture In Germany alone in one year. In France, also, the number of beet-sugar manufactories is very large. The relative advantages and disadvantages of beet-sugar have long been, and still are, a matter of controversy. Stolid claims for beet-sugar made in Europe, over canessugar made in slave countries, the following advantages : superior intelligence and skill of the operatives ; supe riority and easy repair of machinery; ready intercourse of the manu facturers with chemists and mechanical inventors; • the presence of the owners instead of entrusting the management to agents; a ready supply of labour nud skill of various kinds ; and a climate less likely than that of tropical countries to produce fermentation in the saccha rine juice. Very favourable balance sheets have frequently been put forth by beet-sugar makers ; but these, like many other kinds of balance sheet, require to be received with caution.
We may hero add a few words concerning sugar from the maple and the Sorghum seterharatam.
Maple-sugar is made in Canada and the United States. The sap Is obtained by boring holes in the trunk of the maple-tree, in a direction inclining upwards, with an augur about three-quarters of an inch in diameter ; the depth of the holes being such that they may penetrate about half an inch into the alburnum, or white bark, as the sap is found to flow more freely at that depth than at any other. Tubes of
elder or sumach are inserted in the holes, so as to project a few inches from the trunk; their outer ends being cut so as to form small troughs, aloug which the sap trickles into receptacles placed beneath them.
The season for collecting the sap extends from the beginning of February to the middle of April. Though collected in frosty weather, the tendency of the juice to fermentation renders it desirable to boil down the sap within two or three days at furthest from the time of its extraction. This is done in very rude apparatus, which is carried to the encampment formed by the sugar-makers. The syrup is thus brought to about one-third of its original bulk, the scum which rises being removed. White of egg is sometimes used as a clarifier ; and occasionally a little butter or fat is thrown in during the last boiling. The molasses are separated, though mostly in a very imperfect manner, by filtration. The concreted sugar is said to be equal in taste to cane sugar, and to sweeten as well It is seldom refined, but is capable of being made equal to loaf-sugar from the cane.
The Sorghum saccharatum, or Sugar rasa, has lately become an object of attention. Seeds were brought from China, and distributed in France, Belgium, Germany, England, and the United States. Some were sown in a market-garden at Streatham, in October, 1858 ; the plants grew to a height of 10 feet ; and the juice was said to contain 13 per cent, of saccharine matter. Dr. Scotl'crn even asserted that every acre of inferior sandy Land In England might be made to yield 41 tons of sugar from this source ; that In bad years the plant might be sliced in November, dried, and used for fodder, instead of turnips ; and that It is superior to the white beet and the sugar-maple as a source for sugar. This high encomium, however, has not been verified. The plant, nevertheless, is more easily cultivated than the sugar-cane, and over a wider variety of soil ; and as the juice is contained in stems capable of being sliced, there is no occasion for a sugar-mill. On the other hand, Dr. Hayee, of the United States, from experiments made in 1857, found that the syrup would not crystallise properly : whence he inferred that the plant secretes, not true sugar, but a semi-fluid glucose.