300 DATE SUGAR INDUSTRY IN BENGAL. 



surface during the day. This is collected and is called ' Ola.' 

 It is very poor in quality and is boiled into molasses which is sold 

 for mixing with tobacco at 12 annas per maund (Jcatcha). In 

 normal cases the cut is renewed week after week until about the 

 middle of March, by which time a very deep notch is made into the 

 tree, reaching ^ or at times J through it. Each succeeding cut tends 

 to go slightly higher up than the previous one. The next year's cut 

 is made on the opposite side but at a slightly higher level, the tree 

 having grown in height in the meantime. This continued year after 

 year gives the plant its characteristic zig-zag appearance. It is 

 noticeable that trees are almost always tapped only on the East and 

 West side. The first tapping generally takes place on the East 

 side. 



The writer has seen trees which have been tapped continuously 

 for almost fifty years. This can be told by the number of notches. 

 The age of a date tree which has been tapped regularly can thus 

 be easily told by adding the number of notches to 6 years, the age 

 at which as a rule, tapping first takes place. The average sap- 

 yielding life of a tree, however, is probably not much more than 25 

 years. Even then, the old tree is still of some considerable value 

 as fuel. 



The yield of sap is greatest in mid winter. The sap collected 

 on calm and cloudless nights gives gur of the best quality. Cloudy 

 and foggy nights affect both the quality and quantity of the juice 

 adversely. It is said that in January when the trees are in full in- 

 florescence, the sap becomes very poor in sugar, though profuse in 

 quantity, and as a rule does not produce good crystals. 



Smoking the Pots. The earthen pots in which the juice is 

 collected are well smoked every morning as soon as they are emptied. 

 It is noticeable, that after smoking the pots are always kept mouth 

 downward on the ground all day, until they are hung up on the 

 trees again in the afternoon. The smoking is done by putting a 

 number of pots mouth downwards over a heap of rubbish such as 

 leaves, date leaves or lihusa and then firing the rubbish. The 



