366 DATE SUGAR INDUSTRY IN BENGAL. 



dilapidated walls and chimneys, the remains of factories no longer 

 working. Year by year more are passing into disuse, and whereas 

 20 years ago there were perhaps 80 karkhanas working in Kotechand- 

 pur alone, there are now only about 30. The year 1911-12 has 

 shewn a tremendous falling -of! in the amount of gur worked by the 

 Kotechandpur karkhanas, the amount being only about J of that 

 worked last year. This was mainly due to the fact that the kar- 

 khanas would not pay the high price, Rs. 2-7-0 per katcha maund, 

 which the middlemen were asking for the gur. When it was seen 

 how fast the price of sugar was rising, the owners of karkhanas began 

 to feel sorry they had not bought more gur at Rs. 2-7-0. Akrah 

 sugar, the product of the karkhanas, was, in February 1912, selling 

 at a higher price than has ever been known before in the history of 

 the date-sugar industry. The gur was consequently being exported 

 to other districts and even to Calcutta, where the price of better 

 classes of sugar being so prohibitive, the date -sugar was in large 

 demand for direct consumption by the people. 



The following account sheets shew the scale on which a kar- 

 khana works, and also the cost of working it. The figures have 

 been obtained through the courtesy of H. C. MacLeod, Esq., of Kote- 

 chandpur and are quite reliable, the writer having been kindly given 

 access to the account books of the factory. 



The three years have been selected at random and are quite 

 typical. 1906-07 and 1908-09 were obviously bad years for the 

 karkhanas and 1907-08 a very good year. 1906-07 was a bad year 

 because the prices obtained for the sugar and molasses produced 

 were very low, viz., Rs. 4-8-1 J and Re. l-3-10| respectively. 1907-08 

 was a good year due mainly to the low prices at which gur was bought 

 (viz., Re. 1-15-10J), and to the good prices obtained for sugar and 

 molasses, viz., Rs. 5-4-0 and Re. 1-7-9 respectively. 1908-09 was 

 again a bad year owing to sugar only fetching Rs. 4-12-10J and 

 molasses Re. 1-4-7 J per katcha maund. In the accounts no allow- 

 ance has been made for interest on capital. This is generally 

 put at 12 J per cent, in the district. 



