Arizona republican., 1910-06-23
COMPARATIVE MERITS OF CANE
 AND BEET SUGAR.

1 tive merits of cane and beet sugar ha. been going on since the inception of tn
 beet sugar industry. As California Ina. developed considerable interest in bee sugar production the agricultural ex pertinent station at Berkeley carried
 on exhaustive experiments in order tC demonstrate the comparative merits o
 these two sugars. The experiment:
 were under the charge, of Professor c
 w. Shaw, the specialist of the agri-
 cultural college and experiment sta
 tiOn of the state, who has charge oi
 all investigations relating to beet sugar
 production. Professor Shaw has had
 wide experience in connection with
 the beet sugar production.
 Below I produce from a publication
 of the station the results of his ex-
 periments.
 CANE SUGAR VS. BEET SUGAR.
 The relative merits of sugar from
 beets and that from cane have been a
 mOoted question ever since beet sugar
 has become such an important factor
 in the sugar market. The friends of
 sugar from cane early in the days of
 the beet sugar industry maintained that beet sugar was repulsive ill-fla- vored. ill-looking and entirely inferior to cane sugar. As soon as it was found that sugar, white and pure from technical standpoint could be made in the beet sugar factory directly from 'beets and that this sugar was analyze as close to 100 per cent as the product from cane, the friends of the latter ad- vanced other arguments, especially to the effect that beet sugar could not be used for various purposes for which the older cane product had been em- ployed. Even today the question is often under discussion. On account of this and the numerous statements made in public meetings and in the columns of newspapers that beet sugar cannot be safely used for purposes of fruit preserving and canning. and the fact that this idea is quite prevalent among housekeepers, cannery men, and confectionery, certain experiments were undertaken in the canning of fruit and the making of jellies. using beet sugar and checking the results against the same kinds of fruit pre- parfd in the same manner with cane sugar
 The Sources of the Sugar-The sugar from cane was purchased from the Western Sugar Refinery, San Francisco, Cal, and was guaranteed to be from cane. The sugar tested 997 per cent pure sucrose The beet su- gar was made directly from the beets grown at Oxnard, Cal, and was manu- factured by the American Beet Sugar company, the sugar having been do- mated by that company for the pur- poses of that test. Analysis showed this sugar to be 99S per cent pure sugar, and thus fully equal to the cane product in sugar value. Both of these sugars had been "blued" with ultra marine, after the common practice in sugar manufacture, and thus were not different from the sugar found on the market
 The Fruit and the Method.-The fruit used in the experiments com prised cherries. apricots, plums. peaches and pears Each of these was preserved in different strengths of syrup in the ordinary method of can hing employed in the commercial can neries, as well as after the method fol- lowed in the household practice of and jelly making
 In the cannery the method of pro- eedure was to make up a concentrated sugar solution by disolving $50 pounds Df sugar in tanks, then reducing DOT lions of the concentrated solution to -he desired density as shown on a spindle. In the case of apricots. both peeled and unpeeled fruit were put up after the ordinary cannery methods. md in the regular course of work with syrup showing 40 per cent sugar; with sreengage plums 10 per cent syrup was ised; with pears 10, 20, 30, 10 and 55 per cent syrup was used with peaches 10 per cent syrup In most instances III these strengths were used, both in he case of sugar from cane and sugar rom beets. but in the case of one annery only beet sugar was used
 In the making of the syrup some diff l erence was noted in the action of diff | erent grades of sugar. The beet sugar l aused the most froth in the making | f the syrup, but further investigation l ed to the conclusion that this was | ue to the finer granulation of the beet | ugar. This was proven by the use of | ane sugar of about the same granu- | ation in another batch of syrup, in | which case the same frothing occurred | s with the beet product This has | cen noted in other instances, and can | CTS are wont to count this against the eet sugar, but it is only the result of ot comparing sugars of the same ranulation. The difference in the ction due to the difference of granu- ltion was the only apparent difference rising during the making of the syrup. his Is not an essential difference be- Ween the sugars, however, as the haracter of the granulation is entire 7 dependent upon the wish of the manufacturer, the methods of boiling nd granulation being the same in oth cases. The sugar ordinarily used y the canners is known as "dry. parse, granulated'-a grade not com lonly made by the beet sugar manu- lcturers, because there has rot yet cen a sufficient demand to warrant s production, but it could be made by lem as readily as the ordinary grant, tion. The several kinds of fruit were aced in the cases in the ordinary amer and stored in a rather un- -vorable location for a period of two ears, cans of each variety being )ened from time to time to observe le change, if any. Of the 1000 cans hiCh were tbtc traa+ad |