SUGAR IS SUGAR.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 97, 17 January 1908, Page 2

SUGAR IS SUGAR.

AN OLD MYTH EXPLODED. - ; VALUE OF A BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY. .. Tho hollow ness of tho cry that sugar from beet is inferior to sugar from cane is only just beginning, to bo Known. The hou6o-wifo who makes jam sets groat store, upon the importance of using sugar that,lias boen, Bqueo7x>d• trom tho mjstic cane, and she foresees dire catastrophes if sho usoß what she considers to be a base, unwholesome substitute—beetsugar.. . It is all a my.th. Sugar, is sugar. Beotsugai makes as good jam as cane-sugar, beetsugar jam keeps just as long as cajio-sugar. jam, and thero. is jußt as much sweetness wrapped up m a pound .packet of the ono a.3 thero is m a pound packet. of tho other. Boot-sugar, therefore, ought to fetch just as rnuch mopey a3 cane-sugar; and, as a matter of fact, who. is to say that-it'doesn't? Two-thirds of tho sugar sold over tho grocers' counters throughout tho world is mado from beets, In Amcrica, whero both the canesHßar,, arid... thebeet-sugar ' industries.are oxtcnsivo, a.rocont.. test- has omphaticallv' proved.-.-tho fallacy of...the old idea that beet-sugar wasn't sugar. Some cane-sugar from tho Western Sugar Refinery of San Francisco was tested against somo beot-sugar of the American Beet Sui;nr Company. Tho cane-sugar , analysed at - 85.7.. per; cent, pur o sucrose,. and the beot-sußar • just vanquished it by analysing at 99.8 per cont. Each .of the sugars had been ' "blued" with ultras marine, in . accordance lyith commercial custom. .. Next, oach sugar was used for canning various fruits,' and oach- was used at a series of .strengths of' syrup. At first it was noticed . that the produced moro froth -on the. syrup, .. but' closer investigation showed : that, this was due solely to..the. fact that the bect-sugar used l was finer in the, thanVthe cane-sugar. In no other way was . thero any apparent difference. But the fineness or. coarseness of grain, depends entirely; on the will of'the manufacturer,: who can mako as! much .'.'dry, coarse, granulated" ' beet-sugar as thero is demand for'., Soi in the additional frothing, thoro was nothing that counted, against the beet article. The several makos qfprescrvos wore then stored in cases in rather, unfavourable locations, and kept.thus for,two. years, an ocoasional • tin being opened from '.time to time to obsorvo ■ any chango. Tho final result was that, witlr, tho exception of six tins' of- the beet-sugar, lot, and' seven tinsof .the cane-sugar lot, spoilt through, defoctivo sealing, the contents' of,. all' tho tinsMrcre | found to be in oxcollent 'condition. The samo tio reßulted ih tests with.Jellios. Thus tho 1 'bubble" • that ; beet-sugar ,is inferior is burst. •, The tests are fullyreported 1 ■ in a California, experiment, station bulletin published in the' ('Annual Reviow"-'of the 'ICalifornia Fruitgrower," just received. . i All this has an interest for Now Zealand i farmers, as encouraging thorn-to turn their attention to beet-growing, and showing that in doing bo they would bo producing the material for an article; that is not 'inferior. Tho ■ peoplo of New Zealand; i consumo 100,000,000 pounds , of sugar .iii a year, -sold over . the grocer's counter for about £1,000,000.; This is half the trade .value of all tho butter and cheeso we export, and moro than tho value of all the hemp that we grow. Our Ruakura experiments have shown 'that Now Zealand can grow large Insets of 4 or, 51b. weight with over 1G cent, of sugar. This marks our.country as admirably suited to beet culture, for in other, countries only the smallest beets—up to 20.oounces—gi v e good sugar yields. A crop of 15 tons per aero ..would: be a fair New Zealand. average, and .'tliis,-' at 16 per cent., with a purity of'Bo .per cent:;- would yield two ton's of manufactured sugar: Tho basis of payment, by-some, American factories is, on the polariscopic test,: as' followsA price : of not less than four dollafs per tori is paid, in addition ..to ,25 .cents for. ovory 1 per cent, ■of sugar-.abovo 13;., 1 Thus, for. a tori of beets analysing at 17, por .cent. • of. sugar, the price would-be five .dollars, equivalent-to over £1 per. ton. The beet pulp remaining after the extraction- of tho; sugar, forms:-a; valuable and cheap, cattle food,-and'contains: all the fertilising elements that the crop extracts from , the soil, tho pure sugar consisting : only of the eloments-.- of water and carbon. Tho industry, :thorefore, is one that does not exhaust soils, and.it haa.a permanent unfailing market. Stock _raisers, tho growers : and: preservers ■of fruit, and Others whoso industries are concorned with a plentiful supply of sugar, aro equally interested in this increasingly, popular industry.