50 



Sap to be made into vinegar should be boiled down to about one- 

 seventh its bulk and then treated as already described for the washings 

 of sugar plant utensils. 



Where vinegar is made on a large scale, for instance by dealers in 

 maple products, the process can be hastened by allowing the alcoholic 

 liquid to drip slowly through a barrel of clean beech shavings which 

 have been impregnated with warm vinegar to inoculate them with the 

 acetic acid bacteria. 



In flavor maple vinegar is far superior to most of the commercial 

 varieties and it is regrettable that it is not more generally used. Much 

 of the vinegar on sale in Canada as "white wine vinegar" is made in 

 distilleries from pure alcohol and should properly be called "spirit 

 vinegar. ' ' This, while perfectly wholesome, is of poor flavor as com- 

 pared with maple vinegar, cider vinegar or malt vinegar. 



SUGAR SAND. 



Sugar sand, known also as " nitre, " is a product of considerable 

 worth. Dr. J. F. Snell, Professor of Chemistry, at Macdonald Agri- 

 cultural College, when addressing the Pure Maple Sugar and Syrup 

 Co-operative Agricultural Association, in January 1913, referred to 

 sugar sand as follows: 



' ' As the boiling of maple sap is continued and the sap approaches 

 the consistency of syrup, a sediment of ' sugar sand' deposits. The 

 main constituent of this sediment is malate of lime and from this two 

 products of value are obtainable by a process discovered by Prof. 

 W. H. Warren of Wheaton College, Norton, Mass., and afterwards 

 independently by a graduate student working under my direction. 

 One of these products is calcium bi-malate (bi-malate of lime) which 

 is from the physiological standpoint the best acid constituent for 

 baking powders yet discovered. Prof. Warren has used it to make 

 baking powder and found it entirely satisfactory. It is doubtful 

 whether, and in my opinion hardly probable, that it can be made 

 either in sufficient quantity or at a low enough price to compete with 

 cream of tartar much less with alum and acid phosphate of lime, 

 which are the acid constituents of perhaps three-fourths of the baking 

 powder used in Canada to-day. It is, however, not impossible that 

 calcium bi-malate may find a place as an ingredient- of baking powders 

 for the better class of trade. 



"The second valuable product of sugar sand is malic acid itself. 

 This substance now sells at ten dollars a pound. If there were to be 

 put into my hands all the malic acid producible from the maple sugar 



