The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1920-10-01
Sugar and its Sources
"Sweet as the Sugar Cane" and
Things That Are just as Sweet

L
Once upon time land it is not so
very long) some enterprising Amer
lean started the idea of making sugar
from watermelons. But this new idea
of increasing the supply of sugar was
very short-lived. Refrigerator cars
and cold storage made wider and
more profitable market for the melons
themselves.
| Now that sugar brings so high a
price, however, perhaps the idea may
be found practicable. Possibly new
sources of sugar may be worked sue
cessfully.
For sugar exists in many growing
things besides the sugar cane and the
sugar beet, from which it is chiefly
made for the worlds use.
Sugar has been made from different
kinds of palms for centuries by the
natives of India. The palm ("arenza
saccharifera") yields 1871 per cent
of cane sugar ("sucrose") as compared
with 1888 per cent from the sugar
cane, 9290 per cent from the sugar
beet and $3.50 per cent from the maple
tree.
The saps from many trees, besides
the sugar maple, contain sweets.
Among these are the wild date
("phoenix sylvestris') the birch ("be-
tula papyrifera")), whose sap flows
freely in. the spring and can be boiled
into syrup. and the butternut ("jug-
lans cinera"); the "pinus Lambertina
(which grows in Australia and Cali
formal; apple and pear trees, etc.
THE bamboo ("bambusa agresti') was
a source Of sugar TO the ancients in
Asia and is thought to be the first
plant from which sugar was extracted.
/ The Vegetable Garden
The vegetable garden is full of
sources of sugar. Maize Cor Indian
corn), with which experiments have
been made, gives 8S.42 per cent of
sugar. Durra (or Asiatic and African
corn) Sorghum vulgare," known in
1.-THE United States as Chinese sugar
cane lis good syrup-producing plant.
Peas have small percentage of sugar
So have rice, onions, celery and as
paragus, carrots, turnips, sweet pota-
toes, barley meal. oatmeal, ryemeal
considerable sugar.
| The stage of growth and the degree
of ripeness have very decided effect
on the kind and quality of sugar in
fruits. Apricots hPye about 2 per
cent, ripe gooseberries and ripe pears
about per cent: raspberries, straw
berries and apples about per cent;
|sweet plums as high as IA per cent;
lripe bananas II per cent: ripe peaches
I16 per cent; cherries is per cent.
Figs, raisins and dates are rich in
.lsugar. Dried figs yield over go per
Icent of sugar. Raisins are used for
making sugar in practically all the
countries of southern Europe and
western Asia.
Sugar exists Tin solution) in many
vegetable juices. It is found in the
Istems and roots of the grasses, especi-
Tally the sugar cane, sorghum and
lcornstalks; in fieshy roots like the
beet; in the sap trees; in almost all
lsweet fruits, and in the nectar Of
flowers. See the bees and the birds
dipping into the heart of the garden
blossoms! They are after the sugar.
At the present time the sugar cane
and the sugar beet are the only inn
lportant sources of the worlds sugar
supply. For the proportion Of sugar
lis not lanrge enough in other sources
Ito make profitable its separation from
1.-THE other substances with which it is
combined. Pure sugar does not grow
lin nature. It is an artificial product
LOT man.
i There are some sources of other
sorts of sugar. Chief among these is
milk, which yields "lactose," or milk
sugar." quite a different thing from
1.-THE sugar of commerce.
| The honey of bees is a well-known
alsource of sugar. But honey in itself
lis too highly priced as wholesome
|sweet food to permit it's being turned
Into dry sugar for the table or
Kitchen.
1 The sugar maple ("Acer saccha-
lrum") was the first leading source of
|sugar in the United States.