THE APIARY. 
377 
Proper preparation of the syrup is most desirable, 
for a reason presently apparent. It would appear to 
be the common idea that sweetness in all dietary 
articles is due to the presence of a substance which 
is identically the same, whether revealing itself to 
the taste in the grape, in honey, in milk, or in the 
sweetmeat of the confectioner ; but the error is a 
grave one, for the word “sugar” is generic, and applied 
to a class of bodies having, with a common likeness, 
well-marked differences ; and, in the examples cited, 
the sugar of each differs from those of all the rest. 
The sugar of our tea-table is named by the chemist 
“ saccharose,” and is usually derived from the sugar- 
cane, although its source may be sorghum, beet, or 
maple, while it is also found mixed with other de- 
scriptions of sugar in many fruits. The characteristic 
with which we have here to do is the facility with 
which it crystallises into oblique, six-sided prisms. 
It is, on this account, sometimes distinguished as 
crystallisable sugar. If a strong* syrup be made of 
It by boiling with water, the sugar will re-crystallise 
either as the syrup cools, or, subsequently, as the 
water evaporates. If it be used in this form, it will 
solidify, or, as the sugar-baker calls it, “grain,” about 
the feeders and appliances ; and, if any of It drop 
upon the bodies of the bees, it will dry, in appear- 
ance, like so much chalk, which the bees will be very 
slow to remove ; and, even If it be stored, it may, espe- 
cially during the cold of winter, crystallise in the 
cells. This can be effectually prevented by adding 
* 31b. of sugar dissolve in ilb. of cold water. Syrup of this strength 
will form no crystals on cooling. 
