rs, mixed syrups can be prepared closely
resembling many of the natural products. When properly made, they are
equal in nutritive value to natural syrups. When sold under assumed
names, they are to be considered and classified as adulterated, and not
as syrups from definite and specific products. Low-grade syrups and
molasses are often used for making fuel alcohol. They readily undergo
alcoholic fermentation and are valuable for this purpose, rendering it
possible for a good grade of fuel alcohol to be produced at low cost.
The manufacture of sugar, syrups, and molasses has been brought to a
high degree of perfection through the assistance rendered by industrial
chemistry. Losses in the process are reduced to a minimum, and the
various steps are all controlled by chemical analysis. Sugar has the
physical property of deflecting a ray of polarized light, the amount of
deflection depending upon the quantity of sugar in solution. This is
measured by the polariscope, an instrument by means of which the sugar
content of sugar plants is rapidly determined.

[Illustration: FIG. 18.--GRAPHIC COMPOSITION OF
SYRUP.]

81. Honey is composed largely of invert sugars gathered by the
honeybee from the nectar of flowers. It varies in composition and flavor
according to its source. The color depends upon the flower from which it
came, white clover giving a light-colored, pleasant-flavored honey,
while that from buckwheat and goldenrod is dark and has a slightly rank
taste. The comb is composed largely of wax, which has somewhat the same
general composition as fat, but contains ethereal instead of glycerol
bodies. On account of the predominance of invert sugars, pure honey has
a levulo or left-handed rotation when examined by the polariscope. Honey
contains from 60 to 75 per cent of invert sugars, and from 12 to 20 per
cent of water, while the ash content is small, less than one tenth of
one per cent. Strained honey is easily adulterated with glucose
products. Adulteration with cane sugar is readily detected, as pure
honey contains only a very small amount of sucrose. Honey can be made by
feeding bees on sugar; the sugar undergoes inversion, with the
production of dextrose. Such honey, although not adulterated, is
inferior in quality and lacking in natural flavor.[18]

82. Confections.--By blending various saccharine products, confections
are made. Usually sucrose (cane and beet sugar) is used as the basis for
their preparation. Sucros