l68 SUGAR 



(2) Time of Establishment of Gardens-. A period of 

 six years elapses from time of seed planting until the 

 trees can be tapped for sugar. During this time, how- 

 ever, crops of early rice and of pigeon pea can be grown 

 on the land. Further, when once established the garden 

 needs very little annual upkeep, and each tree, in the case 

 of Phoenix at least, will bear for twenty-five years. 



(3) Difficulty of Juice Collection. At present this 

 would seem to be one of the chief drawbacks, but it 

 might be possible to develop a system of pipe lines from 

 the gardens to the factory. 



(4) Concentration of Sugar in Juice. In the case of 

 Phoenix, with only 10 to 12 grams of sugar per 100 c.c. 

 of juice, the work of evaporation would be much more 

 tedious than in the case of cane juice. Nipa, and perhaps 

 other palms, would be better than Phcenix in this respect. 



Conclusions and Suggestions. 



(1) It would seem that much higher yields of sugar 

 per acre could be obtained from palms than from sugar- 

 cane, and the advantage of palms, as a source of sugar, 

 seem to outweigh the disadvantages. 



(2) A small factory has been at work in the Jessore 

 District on palm juice during the past cold weather, and 

 has produced some very high quality white sugars from 

 the juice. These sugars found a ready sale locally. In 

 the process no special treatment of any kind was given. 

 After a small amount of preliminary heating the juice was 

 concentrated in a vacuum pan. 



(3) It would seem to me that a factory dealing with 

 palm juice would be best run in conjunction with a 

 distillery, so that it would not be dependent on a 

 fluctuating market for the sale of its molasses. 



