662 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept. 29, 1904. 



into the liquid state — for instance, melting wax or melting 

 lead. 



But the sugar dissolved in water is not combined, hut 

 mixed with the water. 



Let us now boil the mixture. After awhile the mixture 

 thickens considerably, and if then left to cool, assumes the 

 appearance and consistency of a syrup. The sucrose has be- 

 come inverted. That is, it has chemically combined with an 

 additional proportion of water and thus formed another kind 

 of sugar, or rather a mixture of t*o kinds, one of which is 

 called dextrose and the other levulose. 



The change takes place very slowly if no acid is present. 

 But an addition of any kind of acid will accelerate it con- 

 siderably. The stronger the acid, and the larger quantity there 

 is, the less time or heat is required. 



CANE-SUGAR. 



The first step in the making of cane-sugar is to cut the 

 cane and press it, so as to extract the juice as completely as 

 possible. 



The juice is then boiled rapidly in a nan with a certain 

 quantity of lime. The lime has two effects. The first is to 

 separate the purely vegetable matters contained in the juice 

 so that a part of them settles at the bottom, and another 

 part comes up as a scum and can be skimmed off. The 

 other effect is that the lime combines chemically with the 

 different acids that are in the juice, and forms compounds 

 that do not- invert the sucrose. If the acids were left intact, 

 every bit of sucrose would be inverted during the subsequent 

 boiling. 



The boiling is done as rapidly as possible in a succes- 

 sion of shallow pans. When the juice is sufficiently reduced 

 it is left to cool. The sucrose with more or less impurities, 

 crystallizes more or less perfectly, and the remaining juice, 

 chiefly composed of inverted sugar, constitutes the molasses 

 of the commerce. 



Before the appearance of corn syrups, molasses was 

 bringing a good price, but now its production is almost a 

 loss. In order to reduce it on many of the modern planta- 

 tions, the boiling is done in a vacuum pan. 



REFINING. 



The brown sugar is sold t.o the refiners. It is dissolved 

 in plenty of water, and then goes through a series of opera- 

 tions during which all. or practically all, the foreign sub- 

 stances are eliminated. The water must now be evaporated. 

 To boil the dissolution in an open vessel would result in the 

 inversion of a large portion of the sucrose. To avoid this 

 the evaporation is done in a vacuum pan. The dissolved 

 sugar is placed in an air-tight vessel (the vacuum pan) and 

 the air and vapor inside are pumped out as fast as the water 

 evaporates. The effect of the pumping is to cause the water 

 to evaporate rapidly, though none, or but very little heat 

 is applied. The sucrose crystallizes as the water is with- 

 drawn, and after one or two more operations is practically 

 pure, and constitutes the granulated sugar of commerce. Light 

 brown sugars are obtained in a similar but less complete 

 treatment. 



The nectar that the bees find in the blossoms is not 

 honey, at least not yet. It is composed of water in which 

 are dissolved about one-fifth of its weight of sucrose, some 

 inverted sugars in a very small porportion, a very minute 

 quantity of essential oils, and some very little quantities 

 of the different substances that go to form the different 

 plants. The essential oils are very pungent and strong in 

 odor and taste, and it is to them that the peculiar tastes of the 

 ^iifferent honeys are due. 



The bees gather the nectar and bring it home. There 

 they put it in the cells, take it out and put it into their 

 stomachs, put it back, and repeat the operations until the 

 honey is sufficiently ripened. It is then left in the cells until 

 a more complete evaporation has taken place, and then sealed. 



During these operations the formic acid secreted by the 

 stomachs of the bees has been added. The heat of the hive 

 and the bees, and the addition of the formic acid, evaporate 

 a large portion of the water contained in the nectar and 

 cause another portion to combine with the sucrose, invert it 

 and transform it into dextrose and levulose, about half and 

 half. Usually, a small portion, more or less, of the sucrose 

 remains unchanged. 



GRANULATED HONEV. 



If we put some sugar in water it will dissolve in it 

 completely. We mav add more, and it may dissolve also. 

 But eventually a point will be reached where no more can 

 be dissolved, and if more is added it will remain intact. 

 That is, the water will dissolve only n certain per cent of 

 its weight of sugar. If we try with warm and cold water 

 we will find that the warmer the water the more sugar will 

 be dissolved. If we try with common salt, soda, bluestone. 

 copperas, alum, etc., in succession, we will find a great dif- 

 ference between them. Of some, large quantities can be dis- 

 solved ; of others, very much less. Generallv warm water 

 will dissolve very much more of a substance than cold water. 

 In some cases it is not so. Boiling water will dissolve but 

 little more common salt than cold water. 



Now if we dissolve as much of a substance as can be 

 done in water, and then withdraw through boiling or other- 

 wise a portion of the water, evidently a portion of the sub- 

 stance dissolved will return to its former state, since there 

 is not enough water to dissolve all of it. I say its former 

 state, but it is not strictly correct ; usually the substance thus 

 restored crystallizes, that is, if it is such that can crystallize. 



Now let us turn to the honey. It is a mixture of dextrose, 

 levulose and some sucrose dissolved in water, beside a very 

 small percentage of other substances. As long as the tem- 

 perature is sufficiently high the water may be able to keep 

 all in dissolution. But in cold weather it may not be so. 

 Of the three- the sucrose crystallizes easily and in definite 

 shape: the dextrose does not crystallize so easily, and when 

 it does the crystallization is imperfect and more of a mushy 

 nature. The levulose does not crystallize at all. So when 

 the weather is cold enough so that the water cannot hold 

 all the sucrose and dextrose in dissolution, they crystallize. 



If we warm the honey they will dissolve again, but only 

 to crystallize later, when exposed again to the cold. But if 

 the heat is maintained long enough the recrystallization may 

 not take place no matter how cold it may be. This is due to 

 the fact that a sufficiently long heating has the effect of in- 

 verting whatever sucrose may be left, and also to increase 

 the quantity of levulose at the expense of the de.xtrose. Strong 

 acids have the same effect even without apolication of heat. 

 And it is probable that the secret spoken of lately in regard 

 to keeping honey liquid indefinitely consists merely in adding 

 to it a small quantity of strong acid. 



Lately some complaints have been made that sugari syrup 

 fed for winter has crystallized, and the quality of the sugar 

 has been crystallized. It isn't the sugar — it is the mode of 

 feeding. Several years ago the sugar was boiled until it 

 became syrup, and tartaric acid was added. Under such con- 

 ditions the sucrose was inverted and the resulting syrup 

 acidified by the tartaric acid was very much like honey : in 

 fact, it is a kind of honey. Now we merely feed sugar (that 

 is, sucrose) dissolved in water. If the feeding is done 

 slowly, and the weather is warm enough, the bees will do the 

 inverting themselves. If not, they will iperely store dissolved 

 sucrose which is liable to crystallize almost at any time. 



BEET-SUGAR. 



Somebody, I think in England, said that beet-sugar is 

 unhealthful for bees. That depends to what point the re- 

 fining process is carried out. The fabrication of beet-sugar 

 is more coinplicated than that of the cane-sugar. The beefs 

 juice is very impure, comparatively, and contains substances 

 more difficult to separate, some of them of a bitter and salty 

 taste. In Europe the refining process is not always carried 

 to its extreme perfection, and the sugar thus obtained is sold 

 cheaper, and acknowledged to be beet-sugar. When thoroughly 

 refined, it is like the cane-sugar — nothing but pure sucrose, 

 or practically so. What the public does not alwavs know 

 i.i that the best beet-sugar is often sold for cane-sugar. And 

 the innocent apiarist who said that cane-sugar is far better 

 than beet-sugar had more than likely used two different quali- 

 ties of beet-sugar. 



GLUCOSE. 



Glucose, cane-sugar, etc., are obtained from corn; that 

 is, the starch contained in the grain, not from the juice of 

 the plant, as many neople imagine. The starch is extracted 

 through some process of grinding and washing. The starches, 

 like the sugars, are chemicallv composed of carbon and water, 

 but the proportions and arrangement of the particles are 



