DECEMBER 15, 1914 



965 



living that makes such things possible. 

 Young men will do well to remember that. 



Invert Sugar vs. C 



Mamiiiifactariiig Fiuiirp®ses 



Those who have been selling their cheap 

 honey to the bakers have learned during the 

 last year or two that they have had a serious 

 competitor in the form of an inferior prod- 

 uct known as invert sugar. Chemically, 

 honey is invert sugar ; and all invert sugars, 

 whether natural or artificial, have a peculiar 

 quality when used in cakes and cookies that 

 makes them keep soft and moist much 

 longer than if cane sugar alone is used. A 

 large jaart of the products containing any 

 sweet sold by the large baking concerns 

 contain some invert sugar or honey. With- 

 out one or the other they Avill not keep very 

 long — that is, they will become hard and 

 dry. Up to within a year or two honey for 

 the pui'pose had no competitor, and it was 

 used by the carload. 



Within comparatively recent times the 

 chemist has discovered a process for invert- 

 ing common cane sugar, so that the product 

 could be made and sold for less money than 

 some of the cheaper grades of honey. When 

 honey was cheaper than commercial invert 

 sugar, honey was used instead; but as a 

 general thing the bakers found that the 

 artificial product could be secured for less 

 money, and so they have been using it in- 

 stead of honey. But in making cakes and 

 honey jumbles they continued to use the 

 natural product — the cheaper grades of 

 honej- — because of the flavor; and right here 

 invert sugar is flavorless, and therefore can 

 not quite take the place of honey. 



There is no great loss without small gain 

 somewhere. The war in Europe has brought 

 disaster in its wake, and has caused the 

 cheap honey of South America and the 

 West Indies to flow into the United States, 

 and to depress further the market for our 

 domestic product which was already ridicu- 

 lously low. But now for the compensating 

 feature : 



The war that brought cheap honey into 

 the United States also caused the price of 

 cane sugar to take a sharp advance. It 

 went so high that the makers of invert sugar 

 had to shut up their factories for the simple 

 reason that honey, a natural invert sugar, 

 could be bought for far less money than the 

 artificial product, invert sugar. With sugar 

 at seven to eight cents, it was impossible to 

 sell invert sugar for less money than cheap 

 honey ; and so, naturally enough, the manu- 

 facturers had to go out of business, or at 

 least so long as the war holds up the price 



of cane sugar. The beet-farms of Europe 

 have been destroyed. Seed for sugar beets 

 came almost entirely from Europe; and 

 next year there will be no seed, so it is said, 

 except at extravagant prices. That means 

 that, even though the war is over by next 

 summer, there will be no beet sugar raised 

 for two or three years to come. In any 

 ease, it is a safe guess that granulated sugar 

 will not go down to normal, although it has 

 declined some; but it can't stay down long, 

 and that means that the beekeepers of the 

 world are not going to have, for the time 

 being at least, the competition of invert 

 sugar. If this be true the influx of South 

 American and West Indian honeys will not 

 depress the price of the American cheap 

 honeys, because it will just take the place 

 of the markets that formerly were supplied 

 by artificial invert sugar; but as soon as 

 cane sugar finds its normal level of cost, it 

 will be possible to make invert sugar again. 

 By that time, on the other hand, cheap 

 honey will have found an outlet in Europe 

 as before. 



It is possible that invert-sugar manufac- 

 turers, after they have been shut down for 

 two or three years, will not resume opera- 

 tions again. In the mean time the war goes 

 on, with no immediate prospect of a cessa- 

 tion of hostilities. Cane sugar is still much 

 above normal, and will stay there. In the 

 mean time we should begin a campaign of 

 education to develop the fact that honey is 

 cheaj^er than sugar for canning. We should 

 show that honey is better because it has 

 flavor, and siiperior qualities as a preserva- 

 tive. The war is costing the world millions 

 and billions; but, as we said at the outset, 

 there is no great loss without some small 

 gain. Let us seize the opportunity that is 

 now presented; for it is to be hoped it will 

 never come again in the form that it has. 



as a 



We all know that America consumes a 

 vast aniount of honey — vast when quantity 

 alone is considered without reference to the 

 amount consumed per capita of population ; 

 but does it, for its own good, consume 

 enough of that delicious and wholesome 

 sweet, and cannot the average be raised? 



There is a certain market for wliat honey 

 is now produced; but compared with the 

 population of the United States that market 

 is only in its infancy — it is capable of 

 enormous expansion. 



In considering the possibility of this ex- 

 pansion there need be no question about 

 supplying the increased demand. Produc- 

 tion can be increased with no trouble at all 



