to the relative merits of beet sugar and cane
sugar. As far as the amateur candy-maker is concerned, however, the
controversy is not of practical interest, for almost all of the sugar
that is sold in small quantities is made from beets. Indeed, it is said
that it is practically impossible for the housekeeper to obtain sugar
made from cane. Moreover, notwithstanding the popular impression that
cane sugar is preferable, scientists insist that in every case the pure
cane sugar, or saccharose, can be crystallized out from either cane or
beet, and that the sugar is identical in chemical composition,
appearance and properties. By no chemical test known to the United
States Department of Agriculture can pure crystallized saccharose from
these different sources be distinguished. The popular impression to the
contrary probably comes from the use of beet sugar that has been
imperfectly purified. It is interesting to note that there are over
ninety grades of sugar known to commerce. The difference between these
grades is often so slight that it is impossible to distinguish without
painstaking laboratory analysis. In this book white sugar and
confectioner's sugar are used wherever possible because they are the
purest kinds. Brown sugar and coffee A., much used in candy-making, are
grades which have not been refined to so high a point.

A word should be said concerning glucose. The complaint which has been
made in connection with glucose has not been made against the substance
itself, but against the way it was used. The amateur candy-maker,
however, often has difficulty in obtaining glucose, even though in some
processes it is most useful.

R. E. Doolittle of the Federal Board of Food and Drug Inspection,
declares that no question of harmfulness has been raised by this board
with respect to the use of glucose in food products. Where glucose is
substituted for sugar and used instead of natural sweetening agents, the
ruling has been made that its presence should be plainly declared upon
the label of the product. The reasons for this action are: (1) where a
manufactured substance is substituted for a natural one it is believed
that the purchaser is entitled to be informed of the substitution; (2)
the cost of glucose is usually somewhat lower than that of sucrose; (3)
glucose consists only in part of a sugar, dextrose, and is inferior to
sucrose in sweetening power.

In this country commercial glucose is manufactured from the starch