354 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



" As to the produce of one tree, one may expect from a good 

 tree a regular average of five seers per night (excluding the 

 quiescent nights). The colder and clearer the weather, the more 

 copious and rich the produce. In the beginning of November 

 tapping has begun. In December and January the juice flows 

 best, beginning sometimes as early as 3 p.m., anddAvindles away as 

 the warm days of March come. If the cultivator begins too early, 

 or carries on too late, he will lose in quality and quantity as 

 much as he will gain by extending the tapping season. 



" The next processs is the boiling, and this every rayat does for 

 himself, and usually within the limits of the grove. Without 

 boiling, the juice speedily ferments and becomes useless ; but once 

 boiled down into gur, it may be kept for very long periods. The 

 juice which was at first brilliant and limpid, becomes now a dark 

 brown, half-viscid, half-solid mass, and when it is still warm, it is 

 easily poured from the boiling pan into the earthenware pots in 

 which it is ordinarily kept. As it takes from seven to ten seers of 

 juice to produce one seer of gur or molasses, we can calculate the 

 amount of gur which one ordinarily good tree can produce in a 

 season. We may count four and a half months for the tapping 

 season, or about sixty-seven tapping nights. These, at five seers 

 each, produce 335 seers of juice, which will give about forty seers, 

 or one maund of gur, the value of which, at present rates, is from 

 Es. 2 to Es. 2-4-0." 



After the juice is boiled down into gur it is then sold to the 

 sugar-refiners and by them is manufactured in various ways into 

 different grades of sugar. The best known is called dhulva, a soft 

 moist, powdery sugar, used largely in the manufacture of native 

 sweetmeats. Another kind, termed pucka, is a purer, granular, 

 and more expensive sugar. The waste molasses, collected during 

 the preparation of sugar, is called chitiya gur, when boiled for a 

 longer time, it becomes a black, stickj^ treacle, which is largely 

 utilised for mixing with the tobacco for the Native hookah, and 

 also for making cheap sweets. A small proportion of the juice is 

 consumed as a drink either fermented or unfermented, under the 

 name of tari, or is converted into vinegar. 



Sir George Watt mentions that in recent vears an endeavour 



