H. E. ANNETT. 353 



In a note on the Administration of Bengal 1901-02 (published 

 1903), page 2, it is stated that a tree yields on an average 5 seers of 

 juice every day and about 15 seers of gur per season. This is 

 approximately the same figure arrived at by Robinson. 



N. N. Banerjee 1 also quotes 5 seers per day as the average yield 

 of juice per tree. He assumes the number of sap yielding days as 

 50 and hence arrives at the average annual yield of 250 seers per tree. 



N. Gr. Mukerji 2 quotes this same figure. 



U. N. Kanjilal 3 in a very good account of the industry puts 

 the average yield of juice per tree at 10 seers a day. This is of 

 course quite an impossible amount. 



Westland 4 also quotes 5 seers per night (exclusive of the 

 quiescent nights) as a regular average from a good tree. 



H. D. Chatterj ee 5 as a result of experiments on wild date 

 trees in Khandwa, C. P., puts the average yield of juice per night 

 there (exclusive of quiescent nights) at 3 seers per tree. 



It might here be mentioned that the maple tree which is tapped 

 for sugar in North America in a somewhat similar way produces 

 on an average 4fbs. of sugar in a season. Its juice contains only 3 

 per cent, of sugar. 



> EXPERIMENTS ON LOSSES OF SUGAR DURING BOILING. 



The following table explains the lines of these experiments. 

 Boiling of the juice commences according to the time of year any time 

 from 7 A.M. up to 9 A.M. It is all collected in the earthen pots placed 

 over the furnace described at p. 349. No clarification of any kind is 

 attempted and there is very little scum, as is seen by the table. A 

 date palm leaf is immersed in the boiling liquid to keep it from froth- 

 ing over. The juice is colourless or faintly brownish when collected 



1 Quarterly Journal, Bengal, Vol. I, page 164. 



2 Handbook of Indian Agriculture, 2nd Edition, page 329. 



3 Indian Forester, December 1892, page 454. 



* Report on the District of Jessore, Calcutta, 1874, page 164. 



6 Is it an experiment or a national industry ? Haridas Chatterji, Central India Press, 

 Mhow, 1901, page 13. 



