4 BULLETIN 466, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Jones,’ 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 filtermg 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 ].—Analysis of maple sugar as sugar and as sugar sirup. 
Sugar. Sirup. 
Sample No. | oo pee ‘ F 
Total | Insolu- | Soluble anton Total | Insolu- | Soluble pip 
ash. ble ash. ash. miner ash. ble ash. ash. enviar 
Per cent. | Per cent. | Per cent. Per cent. | Per cent. | Per cent. 
LPR Ree eee 2 FARES 0.93 - 42 0.51 2:42 0. 87 fol 0.55 2.18 
PSE ee ne ee . 89 -36 - 53 2.14 .79 = Pas, .50 2.05 
ee et Spe ee a tg 1. 28 - 63 - 65 3. 28 . 84 373: -61 2. 36 
Vee SEPT Ee St Eee . 98 -38 60 2.51 - 82 . 24 -98 2. 40 
HR ae in i age pm .95 . 42 53 2. 46 .79 . 24 cehet 1.93 
Dee eas eee 1.22 | . 67 55 As) -83 . 23 - 60 2. 29 
F jsp el Rh TE OR Cag ar £35") . 76 59 3.38 85 ee 62 2.35 
nee tee ae oe ae 1. 20 . 66 54 | 3.16 84 . 23 61 2.183 
Average.....-. eer 4 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. 
