CHAPTER XII 



THE SUGAR MARKET 



THERE are other sugars than the products of the cane 

 and the beetroot, and they must not be forgotten. The 

 most important is what is called, in the market, " Palmyra 

 Jaggery," from India, of which at one time this country 

 used to import appreciable quantities. Its production 

 appears to be a considerable industry in India. The 

 juice is tapped at the top of the tall palm-tree and 

 caught in earthen pots suspended from a grooved stick 

 which directs the flow of juice into its receptacle. l The 

 pots are collected each day and the juice boiled down 

 to the crystallizing point. 



Another tree that produces sugar is the sugar maple 

 in America. Here the juice is really tapped from the 

 stem and boiled down into sugar. The quantity annu- 

 ally consumed in America is about 11,000 tons. The 

 people who live in the county of production tell us it is 

 so nice that we shall never get a chance of tasting it 



Coming now to the subject of the sugar market, there 

 are still a select few who can recollect what the sugar 

 market in Mincing Lane was before the advent of beet- 

 root sugar, that is, in the early sixties. The West India 

 merchants and their brokers, together with merchants 

 and brokers who dealt in sugar from other quarters of 

 the world, were the sellers. The buyers were the 

 refiners and the wholesale grocers or dealers in raw 



1 The tapping of the juice is often incorrectly described ; there 

 is no incision in the bark. The long flower is tied up and a piece 

 cut off at the top. The pot is tied on and juice flows into it from 

 the wound. It is cut again when the juice ceases to flow, and 

 so on from day to day. 



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