SUGAR, MOLASSES, CONFECTIONS, AND HONEY. 641 



PHILADELPHIA, PA., February 25, 1891. 



MY DEAR SIR : I hereby submit my report on the analyses of molasses, honey, low- 

 grade sugars and cheap confections, agreeable to your request of December 9, 1890. 

 Of the 50 samples of low-grade sugars which I have analyzed no adulteration was 

 detected. By reference to the tables, it will be found that the polarization is quite 

 uniform, varying not more than 4 per cent. The greatest difference is in the amount 

 of ash. This is caused undoubtedly by the sugars being in a number of instances 

 made from raw beet as it is well known that the ash of raw beet sugars is greater 

 than that from raw sugars from cane. In some instances there can be but little 

 doubt that the sugars are made from raw cane alone. There is one refinery in this 

 city which claims not to use any raw beet in the making of its product, while 

 other refineries use both raw beet and cane. The soft sugars are made from the 

 sirup resulting from the making of the centrifugal or granulated sugars, as they are 

 commercially known. Consequently, there is more or less invert sugar present, and 

 for all practical purposes I think the amount can be asserted to be the difference be- 

 tween the sum of cane sugar, water, and ash, and 100. A few years since an attempt 

 was made to adulterate soft sugars with glucose sugar. This, however, did not prove 

 to be a commercial success. When the glucose sugar was mixed with the soft, the 

 product absorbed moisture and in only a short time after the barrel was opened it 

 was more or less in a " mushy" condition and could not be sold. It was impossible, 

 as a rule, to obtain the name of the makers of the sugars, since wholesale dealers 

 when Ihey purchase from refineries, have their names stenciled on the head of the 

 barrel as being sugar refiners, which they are not. I have consequently only noted 

 the names of the persons from whom the sugar was purchased, together with, in 

 some instances, the name of a sugar, such as "Keystone," "Continental," etc. These 

 names, however, will indicate more or less the refinery, since the different refineries 

 have their own names for the different grades of soft sugar. 



The table will also show the price per pound. 



MOLASSES. 



Of the 50 samples of molasses analyzed there were only 19 pure; all the others were 

 Adulterated with more or less glucose sirup. There was no tin detected in any of the 

 samples; the only adulteration besides glucose sirup being the fact that they 

 had been bleached by means of sulphurous acid or a sulphite, some of the samples 

 smelling very strongly of sulphurous acid, and a sediment in the bottle on examina- 

 tion being shown to be a sulphite. At the same time the molasses had an acid reac- 

 tion, indicating that in all probability this resulted from an acid being made use of to 

 liberate the sulphurous acid from the sulphite, there being in the market a prepara- 

 tion which is sold with directions how to use it, with the object of bleaching dark- 

 colored sirups. 



All of these samples when bought were sold under the name of "New Orleans" or 

 "sirup" or " mixed goods," but in only a few instances did the seller sell them for 

 "mixed " goods. By reference, however, to the table it will be noticed that a large 

 number of those which were sold for New Orleans molasses were really glucose sirup- 

 One reason, I think, for the few samples of pure molasses which I obtained was owing 

 to the fact that a firm in this city makes a business of manufacturing mixed goods, 

 and they naturally sell the greatest bulk of their product in this city and vicinity. 

 There is no trouble in detecting the addition of glucose sirup to molasses. The po- 

 larization will indicate this, if it exceeds 56, without the necessity of inversion, and 

 while I have met with molasses, polarizing about 50, which contained glucose sirup, 

 it is a very rare ciise, the polarization being, when glucose sirup is added, from 75 up. 



In case of molasses it was not possible to obtain the name of the maker, and only 

 the name of the seller is given. The table will show polarization before and after 

 inversion, reducing sugar before inversion, sucrose calculated by means of Clerget's 

 formulas and the amount of ash. 



