INSTITUTE AND COLLECIE, PUS A, FOR 1911-12. 6 



of white sugar direct from the juice. Owing, however, to 

 imperfect methods of collection, 1 to 2 per cent, glucose 

 is formed during the night and this amount is again greatly 

 increased by the subsequent primitive treatment, thereby 

 occasioning very great loss in white sugar. In an account 

 of this work Mr. iVnnett draws attention to the great 

 improvements which have been introduced into the corre- 

 sponding American Industry of Maple Sugar, though in this 

 case the juice which forms the raw material contains only 

 3 per cent, of sucrose. If improved methods could })e 

 applied to the Indian Palm Sugar Industry, there is no 

 doubt not only that it would add to the profits of the sugar 

 maker, but that the white sugar produced would assist to 

 some extent in checking the encroachment of foreign white 

 sugar into this country. The importance of this problem 

 can be gauged by the fact that the production of sugar from 

 the palm tree in India amounts to some 480,000 tons. 



Some important work has been carried on in the Che- 

 mical Section during the year in the endeavour to establish 

 a reliable method of milk tests for Indian cattle. When 

 testing cows' milk in India two sources of error have to be 

 guarded against; (1) if the periods between milking are not 

 equal, the composition of the milk wdll be influenced, and 

 (2) the calf will take an indefinite amount of milk if this is 

 not controlled. In order to eliminate these sources of 

 error the cows are milked exactly at intervals of 12 hours, 

 and the calf is allowed to take the whole of the milk from 

 only tw^o teats on one side of the udder, the other side being 

 milked by hand and the calf being made to change the side 

 every 24 hours. In this way the difficulties described were 

 overcome. While great regularity was as a rule obtained 

 in the composition of the milk, yet it was possible to observe 

 characteristic differences. The chief of these was that the 

 percentage of butter fat in the morning was greater than 

 that in the evening milk by -5 to 1-5 per cent, and there was 

 no exception to this rule. No systematic difference was 

 found, in the composition of the milk, between the different 

 sides of the udder. 



