In the Maple Sugar Camp 



C. H. DONNELL 



Principal Troy Hill School, Pittsburgh, Pa. 



Of the many kinds of sugar, the most common, and also the most 

 important as a food product, is cane sugar (sucrose). It is found 

 in the sugar cane, the beet, the maple, and many other plants. 



Grape sugar (glucose) is found in the grape and in some other 

 fruits, but must be distinguished from fruit sugar (fructose). It is 

 not so sweet as cane sugar, but sweeter than sugar of milk (lactose). 



Sugar and the other carbohydrates are formed in the green mat- 

 ter of the leaves and rind of plants by photosynthesis, whereby the 

 carbon dioxide of the air is arrested and combined with water to 

 form sugar, starch, etc. Photosynthesis means combining by the 

 action of light. Were it not for this mysterious process, plant and 

 animal life would become extinct. 



Plants also have the power of converting sugar, starch, and the 

 other carbohydrates into one another as their needs require. 



-But my young readers (and some older ones, perhaps) still doubt 

 that maple, beet, and cane sugar are identical. This perplexity is 

 no doubt due to the delicious aroma of maple sugar, and the some- 

 what unpleasant flavor of partially refined beet sugar. 



Let us, therefore, observe another quality and function of plants. 

 Most persons have noticed the little glands in the rind of lemons and 

 oranges, which secrete the essential oil of these fruits. Similar 

 glands are found in the roots, stems, leaves, and flowers of all or 

 most plants. The essential oil secreted by these glands is what 

 gives to all plants, flowers, fruits, and vegetables their characteris- 

 tic flavor or fragrance. It is very volatile, and can therefore be 

 separated from the plant (and from a water medium) by distilla- 

 tion. There are other methods of obtaining perfimies and flavor- 

 ing extracts; but, for reasons which will appear later, distillation 

 concerns us most at present. And the reader must remember that 

 the distillation of liquors is not a mysterious chemical process, like 

 fermentation, but a comparatively simple physical process. 



If you put lilac blossoms or peppermint leaves into a retort 

 partly filled with water, and apply heat, the volatile oil will vapor- 

 ize before the water. If this vapor be conducted through a coiled 

 pipe, cooled from the outside with ice water, the volatile essence 

 will be recondensed in the coil and emerge from the end of the pipe 



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