THE DATE SUGAR INDUSTRY IN BENGAL. 



AN INVESTIGATION INTO ITS CHEMISTRY AND AGRICULTURE. 



BY 



HAROLD E. ANNETT, B.SC. (London), F.C.S., M.S.E.A.C., 

 Officiating Agricultural Chemist, Punjab. 



ASSISTED BY 



G. K. LELE, L.\g., & BHAILAL M. AMIN, B.A., 

 Assistants to the Imperial Agricultural Chemist. 



PART I. 

 INTRODUCTION. 



It has been remarked by a well-known authority 1 that " we 

 shall never obtain a definite knowledge of the Indian sugar ques- 

 tion until palm sugar has not only received more careful consider- 

 ation but has been made the subject of independent investigation." 



It may surprise some to learn how large this palm sugar 

 industry is. 



The most recent figures relating to it have been put on record 

 by Mr. Noel-Paton, 2 Director- General of Commercial Intelli- 

 gence. He puts the total annual yield of palm sugar in India at 

 roughly 480,000 tons. Of this amount it is stated that 125,300 tons 

 are annually produced in Bengal, including Eastern Bengal and 

 Assam. It is presumed that these figures relate to raw sugar, i.e., 

 jaggery or gur. The total output of all sugar in India annually, 

 reckoned as gur, may be put at 3,000,000 tons. Thus it would seem 



1 Watt's Dictionary of Econ. Prodts., Vol. VI, Part II, page 310. 



2 Notes on Sugar in India, 1911. 



