(36) 



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. 



