, 1892-12-14
7 HE AVIS
Christiangted, St, Crsix,
Wednesday, 14th December 1892,

TO those of our readers who have never
dabbled in chemistry the statement that
sugar is made from nothing but ali and water
may seem to be nearly if not quite incredible.
They would be more inclined to give credence
to stories about canals in Mars, men in the
Moon and sGch like matters beyond our ken
than to the story that SO agreeable a thing
and so nourlshing q thing az sugar should be
made only of air and WatcI. ct It is actually
true. ASK chemist and lie VIII tell you that
sugar is nothing but a compound Of carbonirs
acid gas and water; and calbonlc acid las is
one Of the constituents Though not one # tle
chief constituents Of the air We breathe, The
gas in question ~ Itself Il compound body, made
up of carbon and oxygen. Carbon is a very
important constituent III all plants, as we see
every time q plaLt or any part Of 1t is burnt
Common charcoal is principally cal bon. How
does the carbon get into the plal t TO folm So
large a part Of its leaves, its stems, ROOFS and
other parts, and to form also sug I and other
substances in the cells The vegetable ply
s|iologists tell us thai it gets in. III this way
The plant. through countless little months IN
is leaves breathes, and takes in the carbonic
acid Of the air. From this it selects the car
bon, and then throws away the oxygen,
which is breathed out by the plant in the
same way as the carbOnic acid gas was
breathed in. Water, of course, the plant
gets from the soil, that is if tho soil in its
turn has received a supply from the Amos
phere.
The main part Of the water which the sugar
cane uses does not however, 60 to make the
sugar. but goes to keep up the life Of the plant.
BY far the greater portion is eVaporated from
the leaves, aud the rest goes to make up with
the carbon an other substances the various
constituents of the plant.
1t may be asked why chemists, who know
exactly how pure sugar is made up, do not
then manufacture it from carbonic acid and
water. substances to which they have easy
access +? Well. perhaps one of these days they
will anG it is a very serious consideration
for sugar growing countries that such d thing
is possible. At one time 1t wa thought that
no organically formed substan eS, that is
substances formed IN a living machine like
the sugar cane, could be produced artlticially,
but we believe that VT are right IN saying,
that that view las now ben abandoned, be-
cause it has been found possible ID some
cases to do it. If possible IN some cases We
may infer that it may later prove to be post
BILE In others. Still there is no cause for i'm
mediate alarm. Nobody has yet been able
to do what the sugar cane. the beet and many
other plants can do, and perhaps nobody ever
we'll. And then we must remember that even II
4 process should be disco vered for making sugar
artifcially, it might be SO expe lslve that 1T
would never get further than the position ola
chemical curiosity. Planters, at any Iate,
will be inclined to think tina 1t would have
to be a marvellously cheap process that could
90 below them in the rates that they are now
obliged TO accept as competitors among the
furnIshers Of the worlds sug Il. There LIS
then, in all probability, . littl6 +oefear from
the simplicity Of the composition Of sugar,
while on the other hand there is much that is
gained by it, as it puts the grower Of sugar in
i favourable position in regard to he feeding
of he plant that produces it, inasmuch as he
only has to find fuel for the manufacturing
machine, which then provides it's own raw
material without cost to him, drawing II,
directly Of Indirectly, solely f. ON the air.