(214) 
to possess an equal value. It has many other important 
uses. After removal from the tree, and the shaving off of 
its gray outer layer, it is alternately beaten with mallets 
and heated to close up the natural fissures. Its removal 
does not injure the tree, since it will split off if not removed. 
The cutting of cork requires extremely sharp instru- 
ments, operated by machinery running at a high rate of 
speed. The substance, as we are accustomed to see it, 
is prepared by means of boiling the cork bark and scraping 
off the rough outer portion. The crude cork and many 
manufactured articles are shown in case number 49, and a 
large jacket of crude cork is exhibited near by, just as it 
was stripped from the tree. 
Wood fiber, especially that obtained from the trunks of 
the spruce and poplar, enters largely into the manfacture 
of paper. In cases 48 and 50, the fiber is shown in its 
crude condition and in the various stages of refinement, 
as well as the various qualities of paper into the structure 
of which it enters. Here also are the several stages and 
substances connected with the production of straw paper. 
Sugars. Cases 73 and 74.—Sugars are formed by plants 
at a stage in the manufacture of carbohydrate foods, and 
again when the carbohydrate is used by the plant as food, 
as explained on our label, in the starch case. Although 
many varieties of sugar are recognized, they all fall into 
two great classes, cane-sugar and glucose. Cane-sugar 
occurs mostly in stems and roots, glucose in fruits. Glucose 
is cheaper than cane-sugar and if pure, is more healthful 
for human use, but the commercial article is very apt to be 
impure. Glucose is mostly manufactured from corn. 
Cane-sugar is mostly manufactured from  sugar-cane, 
sugar beets and sorghum cane. Sugar is a very important 
plant-product and it is of vast economic value. Sugar- 
cane (Saccharum) is the basis of the world’s sugar supply. 
The juice from the stems of the plant is boiled down and 
by other processes is made into the principal crude pro- 
ducts shown in the cases and later into the commercial 
grades of sugar. 
