SUGAR. 137 



tannin by giving a black coloration or precipitate with persulphate 

 of iron. 



An experienced sugar dealer easily judges of the value of sugar 

 by the taste, smell, specific gravity, moisture and general 

 appearance. 



The value of molasses may be determined by drying at 220 degs., 

 and by the taste. 



The commercial demand for sugar is mainly supplied from the 

 juice of the cane, which contains it in greater quantity and purity 

 than any other plant, and offers the greatest facilities for its 

 extraction. 



Although sugar, identical in its character, exists in the maple, 

 the coco-nut, maize, the beet root, and mango, and is edonomically 

 obtained from these to a considerable extent, yet it is not 

 sufficiently pure to admit of ready separation from the foreign 

 matter combined with it, at least by the simple mechanical means 

 the ordinary producers usually have at command ; unless carried 

 on to a large extent, and with suitable machinery and chemical 

 knowledge and appliances. 



The different species of commercial sugar usually met with in 

 this country, are four, viz : brown, or muscovado sugar (com- 

 monly calledjnoist sugar) ; clayed sugar, refined or loaf sugar, and 

 sugar candy ; these varieties are altogether dependent on the dif- 

 ference in the methods employed in their manufacture. 



The cultivation of the sugar cane, and the manufacture of sugar, 

 were introduced into Europe from the East, by the Saracens, soon 

 after their conquests, in the ninth century. It is stated by the 

 Venetian historians, that their countrymen imported sugar from 

 Sicily, in the twelfth century, at a cheaper rate than they could 

 obtain it from Egypt, where it was then extensively made. The 

 first plantations in Spain were at Valencia ; but they were ex- 

 tended to Granada, Mercia, Portugal, Madeira, and the Canary 

 Islands, as early as the beginning of the fifteenth century. From 

 Gomera, one of these islands, the sugar cane was introduced into 

 the West Indies, by Columbus, in his second voyage to America 

 in 1493, It was cultivated to some extent in St. Domingo in 

 1506, where it succeeded better than in any of the other islands. 

 In 1518, there were twenty-eight plantations in that colony, 

 established by the Spaniards, where an abundance of sugar was 

 made, which, for a long period, formed the principal part of the 

 European supplies. Barbados, the oldest English settlement in 

 the West Indies, began to export sugar in 1646, and as far back 

 as the year 1676 the trade required four hundred vessels, averaging 

 one hundred and fifty tons burden. 



The common sugar cane is a perennial plant, very sensitive to 

 cold, and is, therefore, restricted in its cultivation to regions 

 bordering on the tropics, where there is little or no frost. In the 

 Eastern hemisphere its production is principally confined to situa- 

 tions favorable to its growth, lying between the fortieth parallel 

 of north latitude and a corresponding degree south. On the 



