PALMS AS A COMMERCIAL SOURCE OF SUGAR. 



By H. E. ANNETT, B.Sc.Lond., F.I.C., F.C.S. 

 Agricultural Chemist to the Government of Bengal. 



IT' is not generally known that the world's produce of 

 palm sugar approaches half a million tons. Most of this 

 is produced in India, and a small proportion in the 

 Philippine Islands, the Dutch East Indies, etc. 1 



H. D. Gibbs 2 has recently published a full account of 

 the industry as carried on in the Philippine Islands, and 

 he seems favourably impressed with the commercial 

 possibilities of the Nipa palm (Nipa fruticans) for sugar 

 production. I have recently taken up a study of the 

 palm sugar industry as it exists in Bengal. The results 

 obtained to date have been published as a Memoir of the 

 Imperial Department of Agriculture in India. 3 Here it 

 is intended mainly to outline the case for and against 

 the production of sugar from palms, as compared with 

 other sources of sugar. 



Kinds of Sugar-producing Palms. 



Large numbers of palms are known to produce sugar, 

 but the following only, as far as I am aware, have been 

 recommended for sugar production on a commercial 

 scale. 



Phoenix sylvestris, the wild date palm, is by far the 

 commonest sugar producer among the palms in India. 



Borassus flabelliformis, the fan, or common toddy 

 palm, is used for sugar production in Madras and Burma. 



Co cos nucifera, the coconut palm, is used fairly largely 

 in Madras for the same purpose. 



1 Journal Royal Society of Arts, April 21, ign. 



2 Philip-pine Journal of Science, April, ign, vol. vi, No. 2. 



3 Memoirs Imperial De-partment of Agriculture in India. 

 Chemical Series, vol. ii, No. 6. 



