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Volltext: A classified and descriptive catalogue of the Indian department, Vienna Universal Exhibition 1873

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
	        
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