ATKIL I, It 



■] 



THE TROPICAL AGHICOLTURIST, 



^95 



CANE SUGAR AND BEET SUAR. 

 Quite reoeutly it has come to light that cane sugar 

 and beet sugar, wliich have always been looked upon 

 as indentical, are in fact quite different. The terms 

 sucrose and betose have been used to designate these 

 two sugars — for two isomeric sugars they certainly 

 are, it all we hear about them be true. They show 

 the sam* composition in a hundred parts, the same 

 percentage of earlion, hydrogen, and oxygen, and 

 yet their properties are different. They act differently ■ 

 in the polnriscope ; their sweetening powers are 

 different. The superior sweetness of cane sugar, as 

 compared to beet sugar, has been well-known for 

 some considerable time past to those who are intim- 

 ately acquainted with both sugars, though the general 

 public hns not yet been made aware of it. As to 

 their relative sweetnessj it is found, of coirrse, that 

 as "tastes differ," opinions vary as to the amount 

 of difference ; but with all persons who have any 

 facuty for tasting worthy of the name, and who have 

 tried the two sugars together, nothing can be clearer 

 than the fact that beet sugar does not sweeten as 

 well as cane sugar. But, though individuals may 

 differ in their judgment in this respect, here is a 

 test which will be considered tolerably conclusive : 

 At Mr. Gregory's College, near Blackpool, where a 

 large number of youths are educated, and where the 

 boarders are not stinted in their allowance of sugar 

 or anything else necessary to life, it was found that 

 when beet sugar was substituted for cane sugar, that 

 "for household purposes it is at least 30 per cent 

 inferior to cane sugar." Several other similar in- 

 stances might be cited to show that wherever beet 

 sugar is used instead of cane sugar, more of the 

 former is required. 



There has not yet been time to investigate minutely 

 into the different solubilities and chemical reao 

 tions of these two kinds of sugar, but it is already 

 known that they act diflerently on polarized light. 

 And in this respect a very curious fact has come 

 prominently forward, namely, that as the polarizing 

 power of the sugar increases, its sweetening power 

 diminishes. This shows, of course, that as regards 

 the commercial analysis of sugars, the polai'isoope is 

 an instrument which cannot possibly teach the exact 

 value of a sugar. It appears very probable that be- 

 tose or beet sugar holds an intermediate place between 

 cane sugar (sucrose) and dextrose or dextrine. 



"We venture to think," says a modern writer on 

 this subject, " that beet sugar is a depraved sucrose, 

 that betose stands midway between sucrose and dex- 

 trose, which last may be considered as a depraved 

 betone, which lias got so low in the scale of sugars 

 as to be affected by the copper test (thus resembling 

 glucose). Though it has nearly half as much again 

 of ' polariacopic strength ' as its stronger parent 

 betose, it has not much more than half the sweet- 

 ness of the latter, and not very much more than 

 one-third of that of sucrose," as will be seen by the 

 following table : — 



Degree of Polarization; Sweetness, 



Pure sucrose 100 deg. 100 deg. 



Pure betose 103 deg. 70 deg. 



Pure dextose 147 deg. 40 deg. 



Now, the question arises whether any amount of 

 refining can bring these different varieties into one 

 kind of sugar. Up to the present time nothing has 

 been brought forward pointing to such a conclusion. 

 In the next place, we may ask whether tlie different 

 processes of <5xtraction from the caue now used in 

 the West Indies all yield the same sucrose. We 

 have certainly met with cane sugars having different 

 degrees of swretness, some of which may have been 

 partially converted into betose. This is an important 

 subject which deserves great attention, both on the part 

 of the manufacturer aud consumer. — Chanical Revkw. 



THE FIBRES OF JAMAICA. 



I desire through these columns to inform those con- 

 nected with the manufacture of paper, that in Jamaica 

 and its dependencies, can be obtained an unlimited 

 quantity as well as an extensive variety of raw mater- 

 ial suitable for the manufacture of the best grades of 

 paper, whether to be made from wood pulp, palm, 

 bast, or other fibres or rags. 



In the month of September last, I was invited by 

 one of the leading experts in the paper trade to vitit 

 the United States, whither I went and spent some 

 eight or nine weeks very agreeably, visiting some of 

 tho largest and most important paper mills in the 

 State of Pensylvania. 



It is my humble opinion that all fibre-producing 

 plants yield a larger percentage of pure cellulose in 

 tropical countries than they do in colder climates. 

 I noticed in one of the lute issues of The Paper Trade 

 Journal an article headed " Giuesta" (s;;art«»j S'copa- 

 rum, or common broom weed). I think something 

 was said about an attempt that was being made to 

 cultivate it and jute in the State of Pennsylvania as 

 materials for paper stock, ifcc. 



Now, if some of your enterprising paper manufact- 

 urers would only come down here and see for them- 

 selves the vast quantity of raw materials now lying 

 waste on every hand, such as banana aud plantain 

 fibre, bamboo, &c., I feel pretty certain that American 

 capital would soon find its way here to turn all these 

 now useless things to profitable account. 



At this moment the Ginesta is a nuisance to the 

 planter. Abundance of it is to be found all over the 

 . island, as also a variety of fibrous plants of the same 

 order. 



Not long ago Thomas Christy & Co., of London, 

 published a pamphlet entitled " New Commercial 

 Plants and Drugs," No. 6 " Fibres," and in it the 

 statement was made "that the supply of bamboos 

 was exhausted in Jamaica, which caused the paper- 

 pulp factory in St. Elizabeth to stop work." 



I have made careful inquiries as to the cause of 

 the failure, and find that this was not the cause, but 

 something else common to many such enterprises ; 

 namely, reckless extravagance and mismanagement. 

 I would refer you to the Jamaica Gazette by authority, 

 of November, 1SS.3, a return of all imports and exports 

 during the quarter fnded July 31, 1S83, compared 

 with the corresponding period of 1882. It will bo 

 seen from the schedule there published that the bam- 

 boo plant is not extinct, as has been stated, and I 

 venture to state, and challenge denial of thcso facts, 

 that there is just as much of the plant in the country 

 at the present time as ever there was at any previous 

 time. Only on one property has the plant been in- 

 tentionally destroyed, and this has been done from 

 want of knowing better. There is this much for 

 congratulatiou and for the information of your readers, 

 that the growth of the plant is very rapid, and tho 

 cost of cultivating it comparatively trifling. It nour- 

 ishes in all damp situations and along the banks of 

 rivers the luxuriance of its growth is very remarkable. 

 It would be out of place her3 to say all I have 

 been told as to the cause of the failure of the Fair- 

 field Paper Pulp Factory, but this much I can inform 

 you Ihat may be of interest — most of the machinery 

 and buildings are still remaining on the spot in good 

 condition and may be purchased at a low figure. 



I would like to understand how bamboos, only parti- 

 ally crushed and impcrffclly packed, can now bo ship- 

 ped from Jamaica to Europe to yield a profit, while 

 a regularly organized institution with proper appliances, 

 turning out half pulp in a compressed state, failed 

 to show a profit. Besides this, the present shipments 

 of chemical wood fibre from the States lo Europe, 

 support my afatomeuts. I am fully convinced in my 

 own mind, aud I cau see uo reason why ^ small 



