Sucre

“ But the produce of the Earth from whence they derive the greatest advantage is Sugar; of it they grow immense quantities and have vast crops with little care of the finest largest canes imaginable, which I am inclind to beleive contain in an equal quantity a far larger proportion of sugar than our West India ones. White sugar is sold here for about 21⁄2d a pound, besides which the Molasses makes their Arrack, in which, as in rum, it is the cheif ingredient, a small quantity of Rice only and some Cocoa nut wine being added, which I suppose gives it its particular flavour. ”

“ SUGAR is the concrete or crystallized juice of the sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum, Fig. 5) , a plant, much cultivated both in the East and West Indies, which has a jointed stem eight or nine feet high, long and flat leaves of greenish yellow colour, and flowers in bunches.
The cultivation of the sugar-cane is pursued to great extent in the islands of the West Indies, where, about {20}three centuries ago, it was first introduced from China, or some other parts of the East, and where it flourishes with great luxuriance, particularly in moist and rich ground. ”

“ Most of the sugar we use is made from the sugar-cane, which grows in warm countries. But in France they make a good deal of sugar from beets; and in North America, where the sugar-maple-tree grows, some very nice sugar is made from its sap. ”

“ As fast as it evaporates, fresh sap is poured in until the syrup becomes thick, and then follows granulation, or, as the farmers call it, 'sugaring off.' These periods of sugaring off, which occurred usually once or twice a week during the sugar season, were participated in by the neighbors from far and near, who would come to eat sugar and make merry. ”

“ Yes, [Footnote: All the maple tribe are of a saccharine nature. Sugar has been made in England from the sap of the sycamore.] my lady; but I believe the sugar-maple yields the best sap for the purpose; that of the birch-tree, I have heard, can be made into sugar; but it would require a larger quantity; weak wine, or vinegar, is made by the settlers of birch-sap, which is very pleasant tasted. The people who live in the backwoods, and make maple-sugar, always make a keg of vinegar at the sugaring off. ”

“ The preparation of various fruits or fruit juices with sugar is an important industry both for domestic purposes and for commerce in the United States. When the fleshy portion of the fruit is treated with sugar sirup and boiled, it produces the product known as preserves. When a fruit is reduced to a pulp and treated with sugar sirup and boiled, it makes a product known as jam. When the fruit juice itself is treated with sugar and boiled, it forms a product known as jelly. ”

“ The subject of domestic cultivation of sugar bearing plants is, therefore, one of great importance to this nation, and it has accordingly engaged the attention of the U.S. Commissioner of Agriculture, and many experiments have been made in different parts of the country in the propagation of the various canes, roots, etc., from which sugar can be made. Among sugar-bearing plants, beside the regular sugar cane, are, sorghum, sugar beet, maple, watermelon, sweet and white potato, and corn stalk. ”

“ The manner of making use of fruits, preserved by the process I have pointed out, consists, 1st. in putting such fruit into a fruit jar, in the same state in which it is in the bottle, without adding any sugar, because many persons, more especially ladies, prefer fruits with their natural juice. At the same time I prepare another jar with a preserve of grape-syrup or powder sugar, for those who prefer it. I have [110] from experience learnt that grape-syrup preserves the aroma and agreeable acidity of fruits, much better than sugar. ”

“ A pound of sugar to a pound of fruit, is sufficient to preserve most kinds of fruit. Some kinds of fruit require more, and some will do with less, than an equal weight of sugar. White sugar makes the most delicate sweetmeats—nice brown sugar answers very well for most kinds of fruit. The West India sugar-house syrup is better than sugar to preserve fruit, on account of its never fermenting. ”

“ The sugar tree yields a kind of sap or juice, which by boiling is made into sugar. This juice is drawn out by wounding the trunk of the tree, and placing a receiver under the wound. It is said that the Indians make one pound of sugar out of eight pounds of the liquor. ”

“ The sugar-cane was introduced by the Arabs in the middle ages into Egypt, Sicily and the south of Spain where it flourished until the abundance of sugar in the colonies caused its cultivation to be abandoned. ”

“ There is no mistake more common than to suppose that any half-ripe or over-ripe fruit is good enough for jam.
Sugar for Preserving.—Of the various kinds of sugar in common use, the white refined lump is generally sold for preserving, and, indeed, is the only kind admissible for the more delicate kinds of preserves. Coarse brown sugar conceals the flavour of any fruit, and the whiter moist sugar has little sweetening power. ”

“ But about fifty years ago, this maple sugar industry was more carefully looked after, and nowadays the well-to-do farmer has a sugar house, and a fine grove of [47] maple trees, and glittering tin sap buckets hang on all the trees; and instead of a large iron kettle for boiling the sap, evaporators have been installed, where the sap runs in thin and clear and comes out a beautiful light brown sirup.
Imagine the joy of little Oisette when she was allowed to go to a sugaring off with her little English neighbors. ”

“ The sugar-maple is also very valuable: an auger-hole being bored in its trunk in the spring of the year, a small spout is inserted, and the liquor, which is subsequently evaporated to a consistency, is caught in a vessel. A single tree has been known to yield one hundred and fifty pounds of sugar; the average daily produce being from three to four or six pounds. ”

“ The output of the other sugars is measurable in hundreds or even thousands of pounds, but the output of the sugar of commerce is measured in millions of tons. Long experience proves that the desired substance is most readily, most abundantly, and most cheaply, obtained from the juices of the plant commonly known as sugar cane, and from the vegetable known as the sugar beet. ”

“ Sugar, more or less pure, is very generally found in plants. It is not only the seasoning of most eatable fruits, but abounds in various roots, as the Carrot, Beet and Parsnip, and in many plants of the grass or cane kind besides the famous Sugar Cane, Saccharum officinarum. There is great reason to suppose Sugar not so properly an original secretion, as the result of a chemical change in secretions already formed, either of an acid or mucilaginous nature, or possibly a mixture of both. ”

“ Of this sugar there are two kinds, viz., the hard or cake sugar, and that of a friable character, which is produced by constantly stirring the thick sirup when it is becoming cool. The taste of the sap or juice, when taken from the tree, is just sweet enough to be noticed; and though we have never ascertained the quantity commonly obtained from a single tree, we have been told that a very fruitful tree, in a good season, may be made to yield five pounds of the best sugar. ”

“ It is interesting to note that while the cane is growing and in an unripe state, there is no discernible sucrose or pure sugar in it. As the ripening process goes on, the content of the cane juice is changed by the action of the sun’s rays, and the amount of sucrose as determined by polariscopic test shows when the time for harvesting is at hand. Nature’s operation in thus changing glucose or invert sugar into sucrose or pure sugar cannot be accomplished by any human means. ”

“ Put two pounds of sugar upon the fire with a gill of water, make it boil and skim it, letting it continue to boil till, in dipping the simmer in, shaking it over, and blowing across the holes, the sugar rises in little sparkles; then have ready the juice expressed from two pounds of sour grapes, very green and large, the seeds being first taken out and the fruit pounded, and put it into the sugar, letting them boil together till reduced to a very strong syrup, which you will know by its forming a strong thread between your fingers without breaking. ”

“ The crop of 1914-15 showed a world’s production of 18,409,016 long tons of sugar, and in the chapters relating to the history of sugar will be found a statement setting forth the [4] amount produced by each country. The total was derived about one-half from cane and one-half from beets, produced as follows:
Sugar cane, described in botany as Saccharum officinarum, is a giant-stemmed perennial grass that grows from eight to twenty-four feet long. ”

“ Good sugar-beets possess the following broad characteristics: (1) Regular pear-shaped form and smooth skin; long, tapering, carrot-like roots are considered inferior; (2) white and firm flesh, delicate and uniform structure, and clean sugary flavor; thick-skinned roots are spongy and watery; those with large leaves are generally richer; (3) average weight 11⁄2 to 21⁄2 lbs., neither very large [141] nor very small roots being profitable to the sugar-manufacturer; as a rule, beets weighing more than 31⁄2 lbs. are watery, and poor in sugar ”

“ I am told that it is the custom to carefully collect the sap and bring it to the house, where there are built brick arches, over which it is evaporated in shallow pans, and that pains are taken to keep the leaves, sticks, ashes and coals out of it, and that the sugar is clarified.
In short, that it is a money-making business, in which there is very little fun, and that the boy is not allowed to dip his paddle into the kettle of boiling sugar and lick off the delicious syrup. ”

“ The manufacture of sugar by the natives is very rude, and leaves it in a state that renders it wholly worthless for European use. The sugar-cane is crushed in a hollowed log, sometimes the stump of a tree as it stands rooted in the ground. ”

“ I see by the newspapers that the season for making sugar is at hand. Now is the time, whether you be rock, or white maple, or hickory. I trust that you have prepared a store of sap-tubs and sumach spouts, and invested largely in kettles. Early the first frosty morning, tap your maples,—the sap will not run in summer, you know. It matters not how little juice you get, if you get all you can, and boil it down. I made just one crystal of sugar once, one twentieth of an inch cube, out of a pumpkin, and it sufficed. ”

“ The sugar of this country is much better than that which we bring home from our plantations: for all the sugar that is made here is clayed, which makes it whiter and finer than our muscovada, as we call our unrefined sugar. Our planters seldom refine any with clay, unless sometimes a little to send home as presents for their friends in England. ”

“ In the case of beet sugar, production is not infrequently a continuous operation in the same mill, from the beet root to the bagged or barrelled sugar ready for the market. The final product from both cane and beet is practically the same. Pure sugar is pure sugar, whatever its source. In the commercial production, on large scale, there remains a small fraction of molasses or other harmless substances, indistinguishable by sight, taste, or smell. ”

“ The greatest part of the sugars made here are clayed, by a very simple operation, which consists merely in covering the sugar with very moist clay, the water from which percolates the mass, and carries with it the remaining molasses. When the earthy matter becomes dry, more is applied until the sugar is perfectly freed, and nearly white. ”

“ The juice of the sugar-cane is so palatable, and at the same time so nutritive, that, during the sugar harvest, every creature which partakes freely of it, whether man or animal, appears to derive health and vigour from its use. ”

“ There is this farther advantage in keeping the third common term, that it leaves us the words Succus, Jus, Juice, for other liquid products of plants, watery, milky, sugary, or resinous,—often indeed important to man, but often also without either agreeable flavor or nutritious power; and it is therefore to be observed with care that we may use the word 'juice,' of a liquid produced by any part of a plant, but 'nectar,' only of the juices produced in its fruit. ”

“ TO CLARIFY SUGAR. It is an economy to use at once the very best sugar for confectionary in general, for when highly refined it needs little or no clarifying, even for the most delicate purposes; and the coarser kinds lose considerable weight in the process. Break it into large lumps, and put it into a very clean preserving-pan; measure for each pound a pint of spring water if it be intended for syrup, but less than half that quantity for candying or making barley-sugar. ”

“ Sugar-cane grows in unrivaled luxuriance, and cam-wood in unlimited quantities; red-wood, bar-wood, and other dyes, are likewise plentiful; the oil-palm is abundant; and indigo, caoutchouc, ginger, arrow-root, cocoa, cocoa-nuts, pine-apples, castor-nuts, yams, plantains, bananas, figs, olives, tamarinds, limes, oranges, lemons, &c., may be added to the list of vegetable products, many of which are exported to a greater or less extent. ”

“ Obviously, if it is desirable to produce our own sugar, the tropical sugar-cane can not be regarded as the chief source of supply, and we must place our dependence upon some plant better adapted to our varied soils and limited rainfall.
The sugar-beet has much to commend it; it is successfully raised in France, Germany, and Austria, and furnishes, at the present time, thirty per cent of the sugar consumed by civilized nations. ”