The CHAIRMAN: High! I ask at what distance apart the 

 palms are going to be planted ? 



Mr. BARRETT: On a general average we put about 75 

 coconut palms to the acre, and we think the best distances 

 for the sugar palm are from 60 to 80 or 100 per acre. As 

 you know the leaves do not droop; they stand up. . 



M. BRENIER : We have very large numbers of the sugar 

 palm in certain parts of Indo-China, so that your communi- 

 cation is most interesting to us. Have you in mind the yield 

 of sap per tree ? 



Mr. BARRETT : From the trees which I myself worked at we 

 got, so far as I remember, five to ten or eleven litres twice 

 a day that is, in the morning at six o'clock and in the 

 evening at six o'clock. In the case of good trees, five to 

 seven days after cutting, the yield may run to twelve or fifteen 

 litres twice per day. The trees continue to yield for a period 

 of two to three months. 



M. BRENIER: It may interest Mr. Barrett to know that we 

 have tried several times to place palm sugar on the market 

 without having met with any success. We have very large 

 forests of the palms, and, especially at the Marseilles Exhibi- 

 tion of 1906, we had very large samples submitted to people 

 who might be interested, but nothing came of it. 



Mr. BARRETT : I think there must have been something 

 wrong there either a prejudice against a new thing coming 

 in, or that it was not properly advertised. 



M. E. LEPLAE : This paper is highly interesting, and I should 

 like to ask Mr. Barrett at what age these palms begin to flower. 



Mr. BARRETT : From the most trustworthy statements of the 

 natives, I believe that the male flowers appear at four to six 

 years. 



M. E. LEPLAE: That is the same age as other palms, for 

 example, the oil palms; but I suppose a good yield of sap is 

 not obtained before nine or ten years ? 



Mr. BARRETT: I think before nine years in the Philippines. 



M. E. LEPLAE: Would you kindly tell us again the yield of 

 sap from trees planted about 20 ft. square, say 75 per acre? 



Mr. BARRETT : A tree may yield during the year one, two, 

 three, or even more male racemes, each one of which will give, 

 say, ten litres of sap per day for a period of eight weeks. 



M. E. LEPLAE: But many of them give twenty to thirty 

 litres ? 



Mr. BARRETT* Yes, for a short period of, say, two weeks. 



M. E. LEPLAE : And that sap contains from 10 to 12 per cent, 

 of sugar? 



Mr. BARRETT: No, 16 per cent., and in some cases i6J per 

 cent.; always about 15 per cent, without exception. 



M. E. LEPLAE: I must congratulate the Chairman of this 



