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 1 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 

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



