SUGAR

This article is devoted to cane and beet sugars, the two forms of sucrose most important to western civilization. They constitute the ordinary sugar of our everyday use—the refined products being identical in chemical composition, appearance, and flavor. Corn-sugar, invert-sugar, maltose (malt-sugar), maple-sugar, milk sugar, palm-sugar, and sorghum are treated under their own heads. For fruit-sugar, grape-sugar, and starch-sugar, see respectively LevuLose, GLucosr, and Corn-suGar, The present popular consumption of sugar is a recent development for both Europe and America. Small quantities were regularly imported into Europe from the Orient before the commencement of the Christian era, coming with spices and other (then) costly products, but for many centuries it was employed only as a medtcine. Later, toward the end of the Middle Ages, it was eaten in various ways as a sweetmeat and with, and in, other foods, remaining however an expensive luxury to be enjoyed only by the well-to-do. Consumption spread to the general community early in the seventeenth century, but the per capita was even then (and for nearly another 200 years) very small compared with that of to-day—it was still used sparingly as a seasoner and sweetmeat, not as one of the main components of the diet. Le than 100 years ago the annual American consumption averaged le than nine pounds per capita —against the ninety-three or ninety-four pounds of the present generation.. Another story is that of Asia. There, the manufacture and food consumption of sugar from the sugar-cane and other sources probably antedates all authenticated history—reference is found to it in the Sanskrit of ancient India. Its present English title is derived from the Sanskrit sarkara, modified by its course through various other langnages—the Prakrit sakkara, then the Persian shakar and the Arabic sukkar, the Greek sakchar, the Latin saccharum, and the French sucre—of which last-mentioned the Anglo-Saxon ‘‘sugar’’ is an easily understood change to better suit the English tongue. — Sugar was formerly dealt with rather harshly by medical experts, it being charged with injury to both teeth and stomach. It is now recognized as a food of great value. Used in moderation, it is an excellent body-fuel for children, and is particularly important in adult dietaries to supply energy under conditions of continued physical strain—as for soldiers on long marches. This endorsement is particularly directed to sugar eaten with other suitable foods, taken in beverages, and contained in chocolate and simple puddings. It does not extend to an extensive diet of sweetened articles such as pastry. Neither, ordinarily, should sugar be eaten bv itself in any considerable quantity, for the result is liable to be a degree of stomach irritation that may seriously interfere with digestion. Asiatie peoples, excepting the Japanese, eat the most sugar. It is an important part of the daily diet of hundreds of millions in the Orient, entering into the composition of a great many of their foods—soups and meats and vegetables, in addition to eakes, pastries, pickles, and preserved fruits — frequently (to western palates) in a cloying percentage. Of the western world, the United States is the greatest consumer, Great Britain being next in line. The smallest per capita is in Italy, with only about seven and a half pounds, and iz: the Balkans with le than seven pounds. The Sugar-cane The sugar-cane was carried by the Arabs into northern Africa and thence it reached Europe some time during the eighth century. Its cultivation early became an established industry in Sicily. Venetian historians state that by the twelfth century their countrymen were importing sugar from Sicily at a lower price than; they could obtain it from Egypt, where it was then extensively made. Rivaling the Sicilian plantations were those of southern Spain—extending thence to Portugal, Madeira, and the Canary Islands by the beginning of the fifteenth century. From Gomera, one of the Canaries, the cane was introduced into the West Indies by Columbus in his second voyage to America in 1493.. By 1518, the Spaniards were operating twenty-eight plantations in San Domingo and an abundance of sugar was manufactured, the island for a long period furnishing the bulk of the European supply. Barbados, the oldest English settlement in the West Indies, began to export in 1646, and as far back as the vear 1676 the trade required ships of 450 tons burden. To-day the cane is cultivated in every tropical and semi-tropical country. Louisiana is the chief of our sugar-cane states, its output usually exceeding half of our annual harvest of _ 7 four to six, or more, mil a ~~ — 4. lion tons of eane—a crop s ~~ 82) which yields several hun i ‘~ Porto Rico, Hawaii, and re ee aerate a fee, the Philippines have very i tha a. eee a EN “erg =i3| largely increased the out- — Copyright, a factory. Unloading cars of sugar-beets, Colorado: In some parts of France and Germany the labor of carrying the Z beets to the mills is avoided by a system { j: of underground piping from the beetj farms to a central factory. Each district fs» | has a diffusion apparatus to extract the ’ ¥Y = juice, and this is treated with a small » as j quantity of lime and pumped into pipes iy 3 x. " leading into large vats in the factory. a \ » One hundred pounds of the best | © Silesian roots will yield an average of | 4 A ‘. 3 from ten to twelve pounds of sugar various qualities.: cultivation of the sugar-beet was; ay j; } i first taken up in the United States in: i Mag 1880, American interest having been dey 3 a veloped by the exposition of machinery and proce es at the World’s Fair in; ea Paris in 1878. Congre called for port on the subjeet and, following its a receipt, farmers in several states added Washing the beets with sai Meio —— the sugar-beet to their erops—receiving;; for a time encouragement in the form of }ounties by the federal government and various state legislatures. In the beginning, inexperience and want of adequate machinery told heavily against succe , but these drawbacks were soon surmounted and the annnal United States output now averages more than 600,000 tons. Colorado, Michigan, Utah, California, and Nebraska are the chief producing states. Popular sentiment favors cane-sugar in the abstract. In actual practise, the re- A ° fined products are indistinguishable. As a result of the crude proce ing of the first beet-sugar, some prejudice survives ( against its use for preserving, but this | is entirely unwarranted. P The Manufacture of Raw Sugar, and ‘ r Two different proce es are in for extracting cane juice — and ‘‘diffusion.”? The former is the o: | ame ‘‘old’’ way, but it is still the one most ¢ >? re generally employed except in a few loealities particularly suited to the dif i? _-m f° fusion method. Diffusion is used ex-: J. clusively in treatment of the sugar-beet. a“ By the milling proce , the juice is obtained by crushing the ecane-stalks in s oe PE: a succe ion of roller-mills. Beet pulp and juice flowing into _e. Sif fusion UT be sci tits\ cna pMsiaamiane top nizeamitie th Sate fact that in both cane and beet-sugar 502. THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF there are two distinct substances— one that crystallizes and becomes sugar, § §=6and another that is gummy and will not all \ “hk | crystallize. Crushing the cane in the mill. 1; extracts both together and the entire ™~ t product must be treated and separated | afterwards. Diffusion takes out little 3 7 mes) except crystallizable juice, thus obtaining are ~—| a liquid that gives a maximum of sugar ' «| _q| and a minimum of sirup. } * ¥ -, an For the diffusion proce , the eanej 1 i ne | i mi stalks are first sliced thin by special cut- -S ting machines. The beets may either be i Nay, similarly sliced, or erushed into pulp. | go then to a a sme series of large tanks, called ‘‘diffusers’’ or ‘‘cells,’’ where steam or water saturaee on tion extracts the snerose, the liquid being Vacuum-pan for crystallizing forced from one tank to the other, from those containing the partially exhausted chips to those filled with fresh chips, the proce being practically continuous. The juice obtained by either proce is of a sweetish flavor and the appearance of =e It is pumped into tanks ealled ‘‘defecators,’’ where it is treated with milk of lime and carbon dioxide in order to remove impurities. It then commonly undergoes two or three other purifying proce es—by evaporation, through filters, ete.--before it is ready for the vacuum-boilers, where it is condensed to sirup, and j the vacuum-pans, where it crystallizes. i an = \ Next comes the separation of what- =; ‘ - ever proportion of uncrystallizable sirup vy oN. é \ isnow mixed with thee crystals. This is now ey commonly accomplished by centrifugal v L 7s i),;. machines — wide-sided, cylinder-shaped “NS? Bi ed; baskets of fine mesh revolved at high Pi ‘ es i a. speed inside iron casings—the sirup be- 2 ake A nea ing ejected by their action into the ings, whence it drains into a receiver. - Se ‘‘cenred’’ sugar left is known as = E “-e 8. sam! centrifugal or ‘“‘raw’’ sugar, or locally naa | 2 eeee| as “brown sugar.’’ The sirup, if of the oe eane product, is ‘‘mola es.’’? When the. \ { poae| §=centrifugal proce is not used, the raw = 2 fl sugar is known as ‘‘muscovado.”’ a Mola es sugar is that obtained by i further boiling of the mola es. The una crystallized residue of this proce is eee known as ‘‘blackstrap mola es.’’ Centrifugal machines, to separate nc ane from the The exhausted beet-pulp is sold as sugar erystals cattle-food. The sugar-cane refuse,,,: Ss Practically all of the sugar imported F a | into the United States—whether of the; a Fi beet or cane—comes in as raw sugar to - 9 af | be refined here. In refining, it is washed Lon 4 a ay fi ‘ by mixing with water and then again ame =% 1 hes mam| dried by centrifugal machines, further a4 hoa cleansed in defecators and by pa ing 34 j through cloth filters, and cleared of col-:: é oring matter by bone-charcoal filters. 7 | (In et od meee, tion takes the place of the bone-charcoal; “eee =«CStep.) The clear sirup obtained is next Le a —— | boiled to crystallization in a series of « —, ee. ies s| vacuum-pans. At this point, the proce . a.,, [eee Caries according to the size of the a Copsrizht, Keystone Viewco. Sugar to be produced. For granulated A primitive sugar-mill, Panama Canal Zone or powdered sugar there follows a centrifugal separation of sirup, further drying in big rotary chambers, aad sieving and grinding to the desired size. Confectioner’s sugar is powdered sugar ground especially fine. For the ordinary pre ed tablet (or cube, or ‘‘lump’’) sugar, the moist crystals from the centrifugal separators are mixed with a little colorle sirup to serve as a binder and run into molds of the desired shape and there compre ed. The more expensive cut tablets are made by fillimg the mushy ‘‘magma’’ from the vacuum-pans into frames divided into compartments about an inch wide, the frames after cooling being placed in turbines, where brisk revolving brings out the *‘first’’ sirup. <A cleansing liquid is then added and further prolonged revolving brings out the ‘last’? sirup. Next comes the drying in the ovens and, finally, the bars are cut by special machinery into the desired size. The refining of beet and cane sugar is practically, or entirely, identical in methods, but beet-sugar is never sold ‘‘raw’’ as its unpleasant native twang is only - — dispelled by complete refining—whereas good raw cane-sugar (the ‘‘second,’’ or ‘‘vellow’’) is so delightful in flavor that many people enjoy it as a confection. The cane flavor also results in cane-mola es and the final unerystallizable residue of cane-sugar refining being consumed to the last ounce (see Mona es and Sirup).