Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1881-06-23


food like the original starch granules
which surround it in the seed; but
when that starch is converted into
sugar, the baby plant can absorb it,
and continues to absorb it until its
rootlets and first leaf are formed By
this time the sugar is all used up, but
the plant is now able to obtain its
nourishment form the ground by its
root and from the carbenic acid of the
air by its green leaf or leaves.
Such is the ordinary life history.
not only of the barley plant; but of
all others. The starch is to the plant,
germ what the yolk and white of the
egg are to the chick germ. If the
sugar were ready formed in the seed it
would be dissolved away at once by
the water in the soil, and the germ
would perish prematurely, but by the
exquisite chemistry of nature the con-
version of the insoluble starch into the
soluble food of the germ goes on just
so fast as the germ can use it, and thus
the supply is kept up till the young
plant can shift for itself. The malt
ster forces the natural process, and
then kills the germ by roasting the
seed when he has obtained the maxi
mum amount of sugar.
Fruits also are sugar factories, in
which is conducted the whole process
of making sugar from rags, the fiber of
the rags being represented by the fiber
of the unripe fruit. Every boy who
who has struggled to eat an unripe
apple or pear knows that the unwhole-
some luxury is what he calls "woodY, .
as was as sour. The chemist describes
it similarly. His technical name for
the tough material is "woody fiber, .
under which name he includes nearly
all fibrous materials of the vegetable
world, for they all have fundamentally
similar chemical composition. This
woody fiber is made mp of carbon and
the elements of water. Starch and
sugar are composed of the same ele-
ments, their differences of properties
being due to differences of arrange
ment and proportions of the consti-
tuent elements. Thus the change OF
insoIuble starch into dextrine, and in
to sugar, or the change of woody fiber
into dextine and sugar, are effected by
, very small notifications of chemical
composition.
We all know that the unripe apple
or pear is sour, or that it contains an
acid as the woody matter. Now, this
appears to act after the manner of the
sulphuric acid that the chemist applies
to the rags, but it acts more slowly
and more effectively. The sweetest o
pears are gathered when hard ant
quite unfit for eating, but by simply
setting them aside and giving this acic
, time enough to do its work, the hare
] iibrous substance becomes converted
into delicious, sweet, juicy pulp,
The natural chemistry here has
!, great advantage over the artificial
operation, seeing that the natural aci'
! either becomes itself converted int
, sugar or combines with the basic sub
stances in the fruit. forming wholesome
. salts. Not so the sulphuric acid o
the chemist He must get rid of thi
. from his rag sugar; and herein lies tn
o difficulty of the process. The write
. tried the experiment more than twent
. years ago, using lime for the purpos
. Of removing the sulphric acid, bu
V found that in removing the sulphat
- of lime he lost much of the suga
n which this solid absorbed, and fror
y it could only be removed by great dill
" ton, and then not completely. To d
10 this practically would cost so mucl
It that the rag sugar would be far deare
=. than that which nature benefcentl
d manufactures by similarly, but MOI
" effectively, acting upon the fbers I
- the sugar cane or beet root.
: There is some little risk of the sugs
"a trade being disturbed, or of the pap,
d makers being deprived of their ra
70 material, by the rivalry of rag suga
. though the chemist may display in
y show glass some crystals that he h
"A made from one of his own worn-o
- shirt.-London Grocer.
-se 60
NC People who travel between st. Pau
he N;nnoonoI;s ond Cbin.uo and vi.h +