liquor. 
ST 
MAPLE SUGAR. 3 
SAMPLING. 
In the case of grain sugar or cake sugar that is hard and dry, sam- 
pling is comparatively easy, but with tub sugar or wet cake sugar 
there is more difficulty, because the liquid portion has drained to 
some extent and may have left practically pure sucrose. Maple 
sugar is principally sucrose, or the sugar of commerce, with a mother 
liquor surrounding the crystals which gives it its particular character- 
istic qualities. Were the mother liquor removed completely from 
the crystals of sugar, one would have the ordinary sugar of com- 
merce, granulated sugar or sucrose. Maple sugar brings its high 
price not on account of the sugar it contains but because of the agree- 
able flavoring substances which are present in the mother liquor. It 
is easily argued, then, that if this mother liquor is removed in part 
the product is not maple sugar, and a person buying it would not be 
buying maple sugar. With this point of view, it is necessary in sam- 
pling a tub of maple sugar or of any soft sugar to see that the product 
is thoroughly mixed before a sample is drawn, and that the sample 
represents both the sugar and the proportionate quantity of the mother 
METHODS OF ANALYSIS. 
It is the general practice in the manufacture of maple sugar not to 
_ skim or remove the mineral matter which is separated during the 
boiling and concentration of the sirup; many makers cake the skim- 
mings and settlings, considering that such a procedure does not injure 
the product in any way and gives it a larger volume. In the produc- 
tion of fancy cake sugar the manufacturer usually skims and removes 
all sediment carefully before the final boiling for the caking of the 
sugar. It will be readily seen that the sugar made without skim- 
_ ming or filtration will have a much higher ash content than that 
which has been carefully cleansed before caking. In order to place all 
_ sugar samples upon a comparative basis, it is necessary in the prep- 
_ aration of the sample for analysis to dissolve the sugar and remove 
_ the suspended mineral and organic matter. Samples of maple sugar, 
especially of that made from skimmings and settlings, have been 
found with an ash content as high as 3 per cent, while sugar made 
from carefully cleansed sirup sometimes contains as little as 0.77 per 
cent. If the analysis were made on the sugar itself, it would be 
possible to add nearly two-thirds white sugar and make a product 
which, according to the ash, would not be suspected of adulteration, 
_ but if this adulterated sugar were made into sirup and the substances 
foreign to the sugar held in suspension were removed, the ash con- 
_tent would be so reduced that adulteration of two-thirds white sugar 
_would be readily seen. 
