Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/464

 448 SUGAR into the uncrystallizable variety. The propor- tion of sugar contained in the fresh root varies from 5 to 12 per cent., and the product in a large way is usually about 6 per cent., some- times 7. The other contents of the root are : water, 83 to 94 per cent. ; ligneous fibre and albumen, 2 -5 to 5 per cent. ; together with a small proportion of what is supposed to be pectine, and a trace of mineral substances. In the factory the beets are first washed clean in a cage revolving on a horizontal axis, and partly immersed in water; and when washed they are discharged by the action of the ma- chine itself. As the juice cannot be forced out from the cells by compression alone, it is found necessary to tear open the cellular tis- sue, and this is done by a grating machine of the form of a rotating drum, the inner surface of which is studded with teeth. The pulp is then subjected to powerful hydraulic pressure. Maceration has also been employed to separate the juice. For this purpose the beets are cut into thin slices and put into a cistern with about their own bulk of hot water. In half an hour the liquor is let down upon other slices in another cistern, and so on through three to five vessels, until it acquires a density of 5 to 7 B. By this process the juice is rendered very weak and apt to ferment, and requires much fuel to concentrate it. Perhaps the best method is to expel the juice by cen- trifugal force. Another method practised near Heidelberg is, as soon as the beets are gathered and washed, to cut them into small rectangular pieces and dry them upon floors. Their bulk is thus reduced about 84 per cent., leaving 16 of dry matter, which may be kept for any time and transported to any distance. The sugar is then extracted by infusion or by maceration through a long series of vessels. The factory where this operation is carried on at Waghiiu- sel is of immense extent, the buildings, former- ly a Benedictine monastery, covering 12 acres of land. The infusing vessels, 20 in num- ber, are 12 to 14 ft. deep and 7 ft. wide. The beets when dried produce about 46 per cent, of sugar. The juice, however obtained, is ren- dered alkaline by the addition of lime water, and is then boiled. Excess of lime is removed by the chemical process of converting it into carbonate by passing a current of carbonic acid gas into it, which may be generated by a coke farnace according to the method proposed by Barruel of Paris in 1811, or the gas may be generated by the action of sulphuric acid on chalk, as since proposed by Michaelis. This process is called de-liming, and it may also be effected by filtering the solution through ani- mal charcoal. Several other methods have been employed or proposed. Dubrunfaut and Massey patented a method with caustic baryta, which forms with cane sugar at the boiling point an insoluble saccharate, CuHaaO^BaO, sufficient baryta being used to throw down all the sugar. The supernatant fluid, which con- tains all the impurities, is then run off, when the sugar is recovered by treating with car- bonic acid, by which the baryta is withdrawn in the form of insoluble carbonate, the sugar dissolving. The subsequent processes of filtra- tion, concentration, and granulation are similar to those already described. The manufacture of beet sugar has been attempted in the United States, but as yet with little success except in California, where it promises to become an im- portant industry. (See CALIFORNIA, vol. iii., p. 605.) Maple Sugar. Several species of the maple afford, when the sap begins to flow in the spring, a juice containing crystallizable sugar. That yielding the richest juice is the acer saccharinum, the rock or sugar maple. The swamp or river maple, known also as the white or soft maple, produces a juice of inferior quality, but which is sometimes employed in sugar making. The manufac- ture is said to have originated in New Eng- land about the year 1752. It thence extended throughout the wooded portions of the coun- try where the sugar maple abounds, particu- larly New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and on the range of the Alleghanies further south. It is carried on in Canada both by whites and Indians. (See MAPLE.) Pro- duction and Trade. Louisiana produces the great bulk of the cane sugar crop of the United States, and is the only state which exports sugar, the other cane-growing states producing scarcely sufficient for local consumption. The product of Louisiana from 1860 to 1873 is giv- en under LOUISIANA. The crop of 1874 is esti- mated at 125,000 hhds., and of 1875 at 135,000 hhds. The total exports of sugar from Havana and Matanzas from Jan. 1 to Nov. 23, 1875, were 1,018,296 boxes, 249,331 hhds., or 332,- 105 tons, of which 344,187 boxes, 204,061 hhds., or 184,455 tons went to the United States. The imports of sugar from all sources, from Jan. 1 to Dec. 1, 1875, were: at New York, 408,981 tons; Boston, 111,192 tons; Philadelphia, 34,630 tons; Baltimore, 63,141 tons; total for the Atlantic coast, 617,944 tons, against 611,124 tons in 1874, and 598,995 tons in 1873, or an average of 609,354 tons for three years. The imports at San Francisco from Jan. 1 to Oct. 1, 1875, were: from Manila, 10,503 tons; Hawaiian islands, 6,679 tons; China, 2,038 tons ; Central America, 324 tons ; total, 19,544 tons, against 27,438 tons in 1874, and 21,132 tons in 1873, or an average of 22,705 tons for three years. The consumption of cane sugar on the Atlantic coast in 1874 was 710,- 369 tons; on the Pacific coast, 30,046 tons; of sugar made from molasses, 43,600 tons ; of maple sugar, 15,000 tons; total, 799,015 tons, against 738,525 tons in 1873, and 720,873 tons in 1872, an increase in 1874 of 8 per cent, over 1873, and 11 per cent, over 1872. In nine months ending Sept. 30, 1875, the Atlantic ports exported of refined sugar 13,688 tons, against 3,030 tons in 1874, and 3,412 tons in 1873. The imports at the principal European depots in 1873, 1874, and for nine months