324 DATE SUGAR INDUSTRY IN BENGAL. 



Trees Nos. 6 and 18 are omitted from the tables, as 6 was 

 abandoned early in the season by the tappers, and only so few 

 measurements of No. 18 were made that they could not form a 

 really good guide as to the annual yield of the tree. Of the re- 

 maining 18 trees the average yield of juice per tree comes out 

 at 101-15 Ibs. 



It must here be remembered that juice was only collected from 

 these trees for the purpose of the experiment from December 4th till 

 February 8th. The normal date sugar season however extends 

 from about the second week in November till the first week in 

 March. 



In the period under experiment only about 28 collections 

 of juice on an average were taken from each tree. A full tapping 

 period would include about 45 collections of juice per tree. In 

 order to calculate from our figures the yield of juice per tree per 

 season one cannot simply multiply the figure found by 45/28 for 

 the following reasons. In the first place, the yields during Novem- 

 ber and the later part of February are not so high as in December 

 and January. Further, we must allow for rainy or cloudy weather 

 which prevents collection of juice. Allowing for these facts, one 

 may yet safely add 1/3 to the figures obtained above, in order to 

 get the yield of juice per tree per season. 



In this way we arrive at an average of juice per tree per season 

 of 134'87 Ibs. 



The garden in which these 20 trees were situated is considered 

 by the author to be distinctly below the average of the gardens in 

 the district. This opinion has been formed as a result of about 

 2,000 individual measurements of trees throughout the district. 



Measurements have been made also at Jessore town, Jhenidah, 

 Kaliganj, Chowgachha and Tarpur, and in the villages for some 

 miles around these centres and around Kotechandpur. These occa- 

 sional measurements of individual trees cannot of course be used as 

 a basis for calculating the annual yield of juice per tree. Around 

 Jhenidah, the date cultivation is very poor and yields seem very low. 



