The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-08-31
BEET SUGAR IS
AS GOOD AS CANE
Chemical Composition and
Structure Identical in AIT Veg
etabIe Products.
NO DISTINCTIVE FLAVOR
GOVERNMENT EXPERTS SETTLE
MOOTEO CONTROVERSY
NO DISTINCTIVE FLAVOR
Especial to The Herald0

Washington. Aug. 30.-The depart
ment OF agriculture settles the much
discussed controversy over the relative
merits and values of beet and cane
sugars by declaring that there is no
difference between them. In a late
publication on this subject. the lepart-
ment says:
Chemists generally concede that the
sugar which occurs in the sugar cans is
Identical from the standpoint of chem
lcal composition and structure with
that found in the sugar maple, sugar
beet, and many other Veseta BILE prod
ucts. AS ii occurs i'm nature the sugar
is accompanied by various other ma
terials dissolved in the plant juice. and
il is the presence of more or less of
such bodies which gives certain COM
mercial sugar products. like molasses
and maple syrup, their distinctive
flavor.
Products May Differ.
"Old-fashioned brown sugar. maple
sugar, crude beet sugar, butternut
sugar. and other similar sugars differ
in appearance, flavor and palatability,
owing to the character of the plant
products which remain with the sugar,
but from all of them 1t is possible to
obtain pure, colorless crystals like
those called rock candy, identical in APP
pearance. flavor and other characters
tics. If the crystals are fine and sepa-
rate, we have granulated sugar, while
IL they adhere together in large masses.
lump sugar, cube sugar or loaf sugar
results.
The cane sugar industry is much
older than the beet sugar industry. and
since the days when the latter first as
sumed commercial Importance there
hos
sion regarding the identity of the sugar
from these two sources, and regarding
the relative merits for household pur-
poses of the two sorts as they are found
on the market.
1T has often been said that beet
sugar is not as sweet as cane sugar,
Notwithstanding the fact that chemists
have known that, provided the two
sorts of sugar are of equal degrees of
tineness and granulation-and, hence,
alike as to the ease or quckness with
which given quantity will dissolve
there is no difference in sweetness. for
instance, when spoonful is added to
a cup of tea.
Another common statement is that
beet sugar cannot be used successfully
for canning, jelly making and preserv-
ing. In earlier times, before methods
of refining had been perfected, there
may have been warrant for such a be-
lief, but methods of purifying beet
sugar were long ago perfected, and such
sugar has been used for many years in
this country and in Europe for all
household purposes.
No Fruit Lost.
An attempt was made to trace nu-
merous reports to the effect that fruit
had been lost through the use of beet
sugar in canning, but in no instance
was this found to be the case, though
numerous letters were received in reply
10 inquiries which were sent out
The utter folly of this idea that beet
sugar cannot be used for canning pur-
poses is emphasized by the fact that
practically all the sugar used in Ger
many and France for the purposes of
canning and preserving is from the
beet, and for many years American re-
fined beet sugar was used without COM
plaint i'm this country, because the mass
of the people were not aware that it
was derived from the beet. This sugar
was brought here as raw sugar from
Europe and refined at American refin-
cries.
Evidence shows that under both
commercial and household conditions.
beet sugar and cane sugar give equally
satisfactory results for canning fruit