SUGAR-PRODUCING PLANTS 



223 



TODDY, will yield one pound of sugar. Most of the world's pro- 

 duction of PALM SUGAR is in India, where the industry is a very 

 ancient one, but still produces over a hundred thousand tons per 

 year. Some of this crude sugar, known as jaggary, reaches 

 European markets. 



Honey, although coming directly from bees, has its origin 

 in the nectar of many kinds of flowering plants — particularly 

 clover, alfalfa, buckwheat, linden, mint, and citrus fruits. This 

 nectar consists mostly of the double sugar, sucrose, along with 

 small amounts of the simple sugars glucose and fructose (see 

 Chapter 6) . In conversion to honey, sucrose is changed into these 

 two last named types of sugar, and stored up in hives or nests as 

 honey, for future use as food for the bees. Flowers that have a 

 characteristic pleasant odor, due to their essential oils, impart a 

 desirable taste to the honey. This substance, being almost pure 

 sugar in its most easily digested forms, is an excellent human 

 food. It is also used in the tobacco industry and in medicine. Bee- 

 keeping is a very old practice, and in addition to yielding honey, 

 probably results in increased efficiency or certainty of pollination 

 of man's agricultural crops. California, the intermountain states, 

 New York, and the north central states lead in the United States 

 production of honey. 



