SUGAR 



5616 



SUGAR CANE 



refining process. When it is highly refined it 

 cannot be distinguished from cane sugar. 



Production. Though sugar production was 

 affected by unprecented war conditions, the 

 world's output of cane sugar in 1916 was esti- 

 mated to be 11,410,260 tons, and that of beet 

 sugar 6,135,000 tons. The European output of 

 beet sugar was 5,275,000 tons, as compared with 

 846,000 for the United States and 14,000 for 

 Canada. Louisiana is the leading cane-sugar 

 state in the Union; the total output for the 

 country in 1916 was 253,000 tons. For the 

 yield in other countries see chart, page 5615. 



Maple Sugar. The extraction of the sap of 

 the sugar maple is a process that begins with 

 the tapping of the trees in the late winter or 

 early spring. A hole about an inch and a half 

 deep is bored into the trunk, and into this hole 



A TEST FOR PURITY 



Pure sugar, when dissolved in water, should be 

 so transparent that small type can easily be read 

 through it. 



is driven a metal or wooden trough with a 

 bucket on the end to receive the sap. Each 

 day the sap is collected and taken to the sugar 

 house, where it is boiled until the water con- 

 tent has been drawn off. This process may 

 take place in an ordinary kettle or in a modern 

 steam-heated evaporator. The resulting syrup 

 has so high a degree of purity that little clari- 

 fication is necessary. Some of the syrup is 

 poured into molds and left to harden into 

 sugar. The black, silver and red maples and 

 the box elder are all sources of maple sugar, 

 but the greatest supply comes from the sugar 

 maple. In the United States Vermont and 

 New York are the leading maple-sugar states, 

 but neither produces so much as the Canadian 

 province of Quebec (see chart). The total an- 

 nual output for the United States is about 14,- 

 000,000 pounds of sugar and 4,106,000 gallons of 

 syrup. G.B.D. 



A Booklet on Sugar 



Cover In center, title, The Story of 

 Sugar; at bottom, name of pupil, grade 

 and school. 



Illustrations : In lower left corner, 

 sugar cane ; in upper right corner, 

 group of maple leaves. 



Inside cover Blank. 



Page one Essay, Making Cane 

 Sugar. 



Illustrations : Broken cane stalks ; 

 cubes of loaf sugar. 



Page two Essay, Making Beet 

 Sugar. 



Illustration : Heap of sugar beets. 



Pages three and four An original 

 story, When We Made Maple Sugar. 



Illustrations : Sugar maple ; fire with 

 kettle hanging above it. 



Page five Essay, Where Sugar Is 

 Produced. 



Illustration : Shaded maps. 



Page six Description of an experi- 

 ment in crystallizing sugar (see article 

 CRYSTALLIZATION ) . 



Illustration : Drawing showing shape 

 of crystals. 



Page seven Essay, Uses of Sugar. 



Illustration : Sketches of various 

 foods into which sugar enters largely. 



Page eight My Favorite Candy 

 Recipe. 



Inside back cover Blank. 



Back cover List of all plants from 

 which sugar is made. 



Consult Geerlig's Practical White Sugar Manu- 

 facture; Koppeschaar's Evaporation in the Cane 

 and Beet Sugar Factory; "Statistics of Sugar in 

 the United States and Its Insular Possessions," 

 in United States Department of Agriculture Bul- 

 letin No. 66. 



Related Subjects. The reader is referred to 

 the following articles in these volumes: 

 Carbohydrates Maple 



Food, subhead Molasses 



Chemistry of Food Vacuum Pan 



SUGAR CANE, a giant perennial grass culti- 

 vated in tropical and semitropical countries, 

 the source of about half the sugar of commerce. 

 Sugar cane gives off, from a thick, solid root- 

 stock, numerous erect stems that grow from 

 ten to fifteen feet in height and are from an 

 inch to two inches in diameter. The stalk has 

 no branches, but bears, in the upper portion, 

 several long and narrow leaves which are ar- 

 ranged in two rows. The stalk is divided into 

 numerous short sections, sometimes sixty to 

 eighty in number, which are connected by 



