World's Use and Supply of Sugar 277 



from cane ; but it might just as well be called beet-sugar, 

 since the sugar obtained from the beet is exactly the same 

 chemically as that obtained from cane. This sugar is 

 made up of monoclinic prisms — usually with hemihedral 

 faces — and contains no water of crystallization. The 

 crystals are colorless, transparent, and have a specific 

 gravity of about 1.6 and a melting point of about 160° C. 

 At this temperature there is no decomposition in the 

 melted liquid, which solidifies on cooling to an amorphous 

 glassy mass and will after a short time assume crystalline 

 structure and become opaque. If heated to a higher 

 temperature, decomposition takes place between 200° and 

 210° C, when considerable gas is given off and a dark 

 brown substance with a bitter taste called caramel is left. 

 Sucrose is a strong reducing agent, which means that 

 it is readily oxidized. It does not ferment until converted 

 into invert sugar by the action of the yeast plant, or in- 

 vertin from yeast, or by some acid. 



SUGAR IN NATURE 



The sugars are found very widely distributed through- 

 out the plant kingdom. It is stated ^ that more than one- 

 half of the foods have a sweetish taste as compared with 

 one-third that taste salty and about one-tenth bitter or 

 sour. Sucrose, in addition to being present in large 

 quantities in sugar-cane and the sugar-beet, is found in 

 sorghum, in corn-stalks, in the sap of many forest trees, 

 in seeds, in most sweet fruits, — usually associated with 

 invert sugar, — in many kinds of roots, and in the nectar 

 » Surface, G. M., "The Story of Sugar," p. 31. 



