Part 17 (2/2)

The mola.s.ses formerly known as ”sugar house” is a filthy product that nowadays is scarcely used, except in the manufacture of rum. The color of mola.s.ses is due mainly to the presence of ”caramel” or half-charred sugar; it cannot be wholly removed by any ordinary clarifying process.

Purified mola.s.ses is usually known as ”sirup,” and much of it is made by boiling a solution of raw sugar to the proper degree of concentration. A considerable part is made from the sap of the sorghum-cane, and probably a larger quant.i.ty consists of glucose solution colored with caramel.

Maple-sirup, formerly a solution of maple-sugar, is now very largely made from raw cane-sugar clarified and artificially flavored.

=Glucose.=--Glucose, or grape-sugar, is the natural sugar of the grape and most small fruits. Honey is a nearly pure, concentrated solution of glucose. Grape-sugar has, roughly, about three-fifths the sweetening power of cane-sugar. Natural grape-sugar is too expensive for ordinary commercial use; the commercial product, on the other hand, is artificial, and is made mainly from cornstarch.

Glucose is employed in the cheaper kinds of confectionery in the United States; most of it, however, is exported to Great Britain, the annual product being worth about four million dollars. From the fact that it can be made more economically from corn than from any other grain, practically all the glucose is made in the United States.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

It frequently happens that the prices of sugar and tin-plate rise and fall together; show how the fruit-crop may cause this fluctuation.

Which of the possessions of the United States are adaptable for cane-sugar?--for beet-sugar?

In what ways has the manufacture of sugar brought about international complications?

What is meant by ”Dutch Standard” tests?--by polariscope tests?

FOR REFERENCE AND STUDY

Obtain specimens of rock candy, granulated sugar, raw sugar, and caramel; observe each carefully with a magnifying gla.s.s and note the difference.

World's Sugar Production.

CHAPTER XV

FORESTS AND FOREST PRODUCTS

Outside the food-stuffs, probably no other material is more generally used by human beings than the products of the forests. More people are sheltered by wooden dwellings than by those of brick or stone, and more people are warmed by wood fires than by coal. Even in steam-making a considerable power is still produced by the use of wood for fuel.

Neither stone nor metal can wholly take the place of wood as a building material; indeed, for interior fittings, finis.h.i.+ngs, and furniture, no artificial subst.i.tute has yet been found that is acceptable. For such purposes it is carried to the interior of continents and transported across the oceans; and although the cost has enormously increased, the demand has scarcely fallen off.

=Forest Areas.=--The great belts of forests girdle the land surface of the earth. A zone of tropical forest forms a broad belt on each side of the equator, but mainly north of it. This forest includes most of the ornamental woods, such as mahogany, ebony, rosewood, sandal-wood, etc.

It also includes the most useful teak as well as the rubber-tree and the cinchona. Another forest belt in the north temperate zone is situated mainly between the thirty-fifth and fiftieth parallels. It traverses middle and northern Europe and the northern United States.

This forest contains the various species of pine, cedar, and other conifers, the oaks, maples, elms, birches, etc. Most of the forests of western Europe have been greatly depleted, though those of Norway and Sweden are still productive. The forests of the United States, extending from Maine to Dakota, have been so wellnigh exhausted that by 1950 only a very little good lumber-making timber will be left.

The destruction of forests has been most wasteful. When a forest-covered region is settled, a large area is burnt off in order to clear the land for cultivation. In many instances the fires are never fully extinguished until the forest disappears. The timber of the United States has been depleted not only by frequent fires but in various other ways. The lumbermen take the best trees and these are cut into building-lumber. The railways follow the lumbermen, cutting out everything suitable for ties. The paper-makers vie with the tie-cutters, and what is left is the plunder of the charcoal-burner.

=Forestry.=--In most of Europe the care of the remaining forests is usually a government charge. Only a certain number of mature trees may be removed each year, and many are planted for each one removed--in the aggregate, several million each year. In the United States, where the value of the growing timber destroyed by fire each year nearly equals the national debt, not very much has been done to either check the ravage or to reforest the denuded areas. Many of the States, however, encourage tree-planting. In several, Arbor Day is a holiday provided by law.

The general Government has established timber preserves in several localities in the West. The State of New York has converted the whole Adirondack region into a great preserve. Forest wardens and guards are employed both to keep fires in check and to prevent the ravages of timber thieves; excepting the State preserves however, the means of prevention are inadequate for either purpose.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LUMBER INDUSTRY--A LOG JAM]

To be valuable for lumber of the best quality, a forest tree must be ”clear”; that is, it must be free from knots at least fifteen feet from the ground. In the case of pines and cedars, the clear part of the trunk must have a greater length. To produce such conditions, the trees must grow thickly together, in order that the lower branches may not mature.

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