118
The following are exhibited by the Bengal
Committee.
„ 7,832. Sugar, from Hugli.
7.834. Cane-juice molasses, from Cmttagong.
7*833. Date-palm molasses, do.
7.835. Sugar-eane molasses, from Faridpur.
7*836. Date sugar candy, do.
7.837. Cane sugar, do.
7.838. Date-palm sugar, do.
The date tree is met with in almost every part of
Bengal Proper, but it flourishes most congemally,
and is found plentifully only in the alluvial soils
which cover its south-eastern portion, exceptmg only
such traots as suffer entire submersion annually from
the overflow of their rivers, as is common in portions
of the Dacca, Mymensing, and Sunderbund distncts.
The extent of country best suited for its growth, and
over which it is found most plentifully as above m-
dicated, may therefore be taken as within an area
Stretching east and west about 200 miles, and north
and south about 100 miles, and comprehendmg, by
a rough estimate, about 9,000 square miles, witlnn
an irregulär triangulär space.
Wlien not stunted in its growth by the extraetion
of its juice for sugar, it is a very handsome tree,
rising in Bengal from 30 to 40 feet in height, with a
dense crown of leaves spreading in a hemispherical
form from its summit. These leaves are from 10 to
15 feet long, and composed of numerous leaflets or
pinnules about 18 inches long. The trunk is rough,
from the adherence of the bases of the falling leaves;
tliis serves to distinguish it at a glance from the
smooth-trunked cocoa-nut palm, which in its leaves
only it resembles. The fruit eonsists more of seed
than of pulp, and altogether is only about one-fourth
the size of the Arabian kind brought annually to
Calcutta for sale, and, when fresh imported, a rieh
and favourite fruit there. This inferionty of the
Bengal fruit may no doubt be attnbuted to the
entire neglect of its improvement there from time
immemorial, and, perhaps, in some measure, to the
practice of tapping the trees for their sap, so uni-
versally followed in the districts around Calcutta, its
principal ränge of growth.
The proeess of tapping and extracting the juice
commences about the Ist of November, and ternn-
nates about the löth of February. Some days pre-
viously, the lower leaves of the crown are stripped
off all round, and a few extra leaves from the side ot
the tree intended to be tapped. On the part thus
denuded a triangulär incision is made with a kmfe,
about an inch deep, so as to penetrate through the
cortex and divide the sap yessels; each side of the
triangle measuring about six inches,.with one point
downwards, in which is inserted a piece of grooved
bamboo, along which the sap trickles, and from
thence drops into an earthen pot suspended under-
neath it by a string. The pots are suspended m the
evening, and removed very early the following morn-
ing, ere the sun has sufficient power to warm the
iuice, which would cause it immediately to ferment,
and destroy its quality of crystallizing into sugar.
The cutting being made in the afternoon, next
morning the pot is found to contain, from a full-
grown tree, 10 seers of juice, the second morning
four seers, and the third morning two seers of juice;
the quantity exuding afterwards is so small that no
pot is suspended for the next four days.
Daily at sunrise, throughout the goor season, the
industrious ryot may be seen climbing his trees, and
collecting at a convenient spot beneath them the
earthen pots containing the juice yielded during
the past night. Under a rüde shed, covered with
the leaves of the date tree itself, and erected under
the shade of the plantation, is prepared the boiling
apparatus to serve for the goor season. It eonsists
of a hole of about three feet in diameter, sunk about
two feet in the ground, over which are supported by
mud arches four thin earthen pans of a semi-globular
shape, and 18 inches in diameter; the hole.itself is
the furnaee, and has two apertures on opposite sides
for feeding in the fuel, and for escape of the smoke.
The fire is lit as soon as the juice is collected, and
poured into the four pans, which are kept constantly
supplied with fresh juice as the water evaporates,
until the whole produce of the morning is boiled
down to the required density. . As the contents of
each pan become sufficiently boiled they are ladled
out into other earthen pots or jars, of yarious sizes,
from five to 20 seers of contents, according to local
oustom, and in these the boiled extract cools, crys-
tallizes into a hard compound of granulated sugar
and molasses, and is brought to market for sale as
goor.
The subsequent processes by which the goor is
deprived more or less of its molasses and impurities
are too long to be detailed.
Bangalore Local Committee.
115. Sugar candy.
1,006. Sugar cane, Pounda. Nagpur.
1,007. Sugar-cane, Kala. Nagpur.
1,008. Goor, Bheokhari. Nagpur.
1,009. Goor, Chul par. Nagpur.
1,010. Goor, Raghoonath. Nagpur.
1,011. Goor, Kala. Nagpur.
Amritsar Local Committee.
3,478. Ganna cane sugar.
3.480. Sugar candy.
3.481. Molasses.
3.482. Inferior sugar (Khand).
3,486. Misri bikanir.
3.488. Inferior sugar (Shakkar lal).
3.489. Sugar candy (Misri kuza).
3.490. Six specimens of sugar products used as physic
by natives.
India Museum, London.
Honey from Goonah, C. India, Mysore, and Ava.
Of honey-bees there are several kinds common in
India. One species (Apis sp.?) is kept in a semi-
domestic state by the villagers along the N. W.
Himalayas, and in Kumaon, Kashmir, &c., being
hived in the w'alls of the house, small openings
being made for their entrance, in the timbers of
which the house is partially built. Many houses
contain several hives, these consisting of an earthen
pot or other receptacle contained in a small chamber
in the wall, and having but a small external opening
for the egress of the bees, but closed internally by a
cover through which the honey is removed after the