4 BULLETIN 466, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Jones, 1 recognizing this, recommended that all maple sugar be dis- 

 solved to a standard sirup of 11 pounds to the gallon, filtered, and 

 the sirup analyzed, to effect a more certain determination of the 

 presence or absence of adulterants. By this treatment, even with 

 the highest grades of pure maple sugar, he has never obtained a sirup 

 having chemical characteristics which would place it in the list of 

 adulterated products. He states that "It would seem, therefore, 

 that a certain minimum amount of ash can not be removed from pure 

 sugar or sugar made into sirup by the ordinary methods of filtration 

 and that even the slow and complete filtering which is effected by 

 this method fails to remove sufficient ash from the pure goods to 

 admit even a suspicion of adulteration." 



The effect of the treatment just described is readily seen in Table I, 

 where the results of the eight samples of maple sugar analyzed as sugar 

 and then analyzed in the sirup condition are tabulated, the individual 

 determinations in all cases being calculated to the moisture-free basis. 



Table I. — Analysis of maple sugar as sugar and as sugar sirup. 





Sugar. 



Sirup. 



Sample No. 



Total 

 ash. 



Insolu- 

 ble ash. 



Soluble 

 ash. 



Winton 



lead 

 number. 



Total 

 ash. 



Insolu- 

 ble ash. 



Soluble 

 ash. 



Winton 



lead 

 number. 



1 *. 



Per cent. 



0.93 



.89 



1.28 



.98 



.95 



1.22 



1.35 



1.20 



Per cent. 

 0.42 

 .36 

 .63 

 .38 

 .42 

 .67 

 .76 

 .66 



Per cent. 

 0.51 

 .53 

 .65 

 .60 

 .53 

 .55 



2.12 

 2.14 

 3.28 

 2.51 

 2.46 

 I. 25 



Per cent. 



0.87 



.79 



.84 

 .82 

 .79 

 .83 

 .85 

 .84 



Per cent. 

 0.32 

 .29 

 .23 

 .24 

 .24 

 .23 

 .23 

 .23 



Per cent. 

 0.55 

 .50 

 .61 

 .58 

 .55 

 .60 

 .62 

 .61 



2.18 



2. 



2.05 



3 



2.36 



4 



2.40 



5 



1.93 



6 



2.29 



7 



.59 3. 38 

 .54 3.16 



2.35 



8 



2.15 







Average 



1.10 



.54 



.56 2. 79 



.83 



.25 



.58 



2.21 



In the sugar state the total ash varied from 1.35 to 0.89 per cent, 

 a variation of 0.46 per cent, with an average of 1.10 per cent, while 

 after making the sugar into sirup the range was from 0.87 to 0.79 

 per cent, or a variation of only 0.08 per cent, with an average of 

 0.83 per cent. In the filtration process 0.27 per cent of ash had been 

 removed, which corresponds practically to the loss in insoluble ash. 

 The soluble ash remained practically the same, corroborated again 

 by the fact that analysis of the precipitate gives only small per- 

 centages of sodium or potash salts. The lead number decreased from 

 an average of 2.79 to 2.21 per cent, with variations of the sugar from 

 3.38 to 2.12, or 1.26 per cent, and of the sugar sirup from 2.40 to 

 1.93, 0.47 per cent. Here again by analyzing the product in the 

 form of a sirup the maximum and minimum results are brought closer 

 together and adulteration is more easily detected. These figures agree 

 with those obtained by Jones. 1 



« Vt. Agr. Exp. Sta., 17th Ann. Rpt. (1904), p. 453; 18th Ann. Rpt. (1905), p. 327. 



