Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/776

* SUGAR-CANE. 674 SUGARS. of labor, especially at harvest. The yield of sugar varies greatly. In regions with a fertile soil, irrigation, and improved methods of culture about five tons of sugar per acre is produced. Yields of over ten tons per acre are authenti- cated, in Hawaii, where sugar-cane production has reached its highest perfection, yields of even fourteen tons of sugar per acre are known. This is obtained only by frequent plantings and scien- tific fertilization and irrigation of the crop. The leaves are sometimes used for feeding cattle. Efforts made by the Louisiana Experiment Sta- tion to make silage from sugar-cane lefuse were unsuccessful, owing to the alcoholic and acetic fermentation induced by the residual sugar. The pressed residue from the mill, known as bagasse, is used for fuel. It is also employed as a fer-. tilizer. See Sugar, jManufactcke of. SUGAR-CANE INSECTS. The principal enemies of the sugar-cane in the United States are the sugar-cane beetle (Ligyrus rugiceps) and the sugar-cane borer (Diatrwa saccharalis). The former belongs to the family Scarabajidfe, and breeds in the ground. The adult beetles make their appearance in early spring, bore into the stubble or into the young cane, and also work into the seed cane ; the top leaves wither and the stalk is finally destroyed. The borer is the larva of a crambid moth which lays its eggs upon the leaves of the young cane near the axils, and the young borer, hatching in the course of a few days, penetrates the stalk at or near the joint and tunnels, usually upward, through the soft pith. It matures in thirty days or less, and there are several generations each year. It hiber- nates in the larval state in the lower part of the stalk or in the tap root. Burning the tops and volunteer cane, and laying down the seed cane in trenches beneath the surface of the ground, keep this insect in cheek. In Hawaii there is a weevil borer {Sphcno- phorns ohscuriis) which does considerable dam- age. Stalks of the cane are frequently riddled with the galleries of the larvsp, and the galleries are filled with macerated fibre which the larva apparently pushes behind itself. When ready to pupate the tunnel is somewhat enlarged and a cocoon is formed of coarse fibre in which trans- formation takes place. In Australia there is a noctuid larva which bores downward from the tips of the plants. Certain scarabceid larvfB feed upon the roots, and the young plants are destroyed by wireworms. In the West Indies a bark-boring beetle (Xyleborus piceus) sometimes riddles the canes by its minute burrows, the larva working into the young sprouts from the stumps of previously cut canes. In Java there are three lepidopterous borers and a mealy bug which do some damage, and in Mauritius a some- what troublesome scale insect known as Iceri/a sacchari. Consult various volumes of Ivsect Life (Washington, 1888 to 1895) : Comstoek. Report OH Insects Injurious, fo Hugar-Cniie (ib., 1881) ; Morgan, "Sugar-Cane Borer," in linlletin 9. Lou- isiana Agricultvrnl Experiment Station (Baton Rouge. 1891). SUGAR-HOUSE, The. A brick building on Liberty Street, New York, used by the British as a military prison during the Revolution. SUGAR OF I/EAD. The common name for acetate of lead. See Lead. SUGARS (OF., Fr. s.ucre, from ML. succarum, saccharuni, from Ok. auKxap, stikehar, cdiiX(it>ov, sakcharon, sugar, from Ar. siikkar, from I'ers. sliukar, Hind, sitakkar, from Prak. sakkara, sugar, from Skt. sarkard, candied sugar, gravel, grit). A term applied to various substances composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen (see Cabbo- UYDRATEs), which are more or less sweet, are readily soluble in water, are colorless and odor- less, and are usually crystallizable. They are widely distributed in natiire as original products of vital processes in plants. They h.ave an un- paralleled importance in the organic world. In green plants they are formed from carbon diox- ide and water by the ehloroplasts (see Photo- synthesis), and are transferred by diffusion lo all parts of the plant body to be used directly in the metabolism of the plant for the manufacture of proteid substances, or to be stored for future use, sometimes as glucose (e.g. in the onion bulb), sometimes as saccharose (e.g. in the beet), and sometimes as other widely different substan- ces into wliieh they have been converted. ( See Stor.ge. ) If formed more rapidly than they can diffuse away, sugars may be condensed into starch in the ehloroplasts themselves. At times of renewed growth, as in the germination of seeds and the sprouting of tubers and bulbs, the plant draws upon these stores of carbohydrate. If the storage has been in the form of cellulose, starch, inulin, or cane sugar, the stored food must be converted by means of enzymes into a hexose sugar before it can be utilized. The stored sugars of plant tissues form one of the most valuable sources of animal food. Sugars found in the bodies of animals or in the excreta therefrom are believed to be derived from substances of vegetable origin. The sugars have been variously classified according to their chemical and physical properties as fermentable and non-fermentable; reducing and non-reducing; and dextro-rotary. la'vo-rotary, and inactive, ac- cording to their effect on polarized light. Fermentable and Unfeejientable SroARS. These include the sugars that undergo change or decomposition under the influence of microorgan- isms : glucose, for example, and certain other sugars are thus changed into alcohol (q.v. ) by the action of yeast. This term and method of classification have become imsatisfactory because of greatly increased knowledge of the action of the lower forms of life and enzymes on sugars and other substances. (See Fermentation; Enzyme.) Many sugars, however, that are not acted upon by one organism are readily decom- posed by another, and so the subdivision of sugars into fermentable and unfermentable is of at" least doubtful value. For example, milk sugar does not yield alcohol with yeast without first being hydrolyzed, Init undergoes the lactic acid fermentation immediately. Reducing Sugars. Certain sugars possess the property of reducing compounds of copper, silver, and other easily rediicible metals in alkaline solution, the reduction being generally more rapid at the boiling point of the liquid. In some eases the compounds are reduced to lower oxides, which are precipitated, as in the case of copper; in other cases the reduction is complete, the free metal being precipitated. An alkaline solution of copper (see Feiiling's Solution) is the one usually employed for testing the reducing power of sugars. The amount of reduction depends