Ricky Dufn, age 12, of Delmar,  for his question:

Are beet and cane supers different?

Sugars are carbohydrate chemicals, made from carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Fructose, sucrose, glucose and lactose are different kinds of sugar made by plants from the same basic elements. Some sugars, however, are sweeter than others,. When comparing the sweetness of various sugars, sucrose is taken as a, standard. It is almost seven times sweeter than lactose and fructose, the sweetest sugar, is almost twice as sweet as sucrose.

Our table sugar is pure sucrose, whether it comes i’om the sugarbeet or the sugar cane. Sucrose is also present in many fruits and vegetables. We eat it along with our peas and carrots, beets and pineapple, honey and maple syrup. The sucrose from sugar cane is exactly the same chemical as the sucrose from sugar beet.