130 GIBBS. 



rarely that any sugar-cane products are mixed with the sap. Over one 

 hundred distilleries Avere operating in this province a few years ago. 

 During the last fiscal year the number was twenty-two and since the 

 data in the preceding table were collected ten have permanently closed. 

 Further reductions in the number operating will take place in the present 

 fiscal year. In the face of this extremely drastic reduction in numbers, 

 the total production of the province has remained practically constant 

 during the past six years. As the methods improve in the surviving 

 distilleries, increased production is to be expected. All of the distilleries 

 in the Province of Pangasinan at this time use copper pot-stills fitted 

 with a goose. The product, a distillate containing from 20 to 30 per 

 cent of alcohol, is all consumed locally. 



From the point of view of the collection of the tax on distilled spirits, 

 the rapid decrease in the number of the distilleries is very desirable, 

 provided there is no decrease in the revenue. The number of men en- 

 gaged in the control and the costs of collecting the tax are reduced, and 

 the opportunities for fraud minimized. 



Conditions in the Bulacan-Pampanga district. — In the Provinces of 

 Bulacan and Pampanga, which contain the great nipa district bordering 

 on Manila Bay, the same general decrease in the number of distilleries 

 operating and increase in production is going on. However, here the type 

 of still employed is a great improvement over that in use in Pangasinan 

 and other districts. All of the stills are of the continuous rectifying 

 type; the majority of them produce alcohol varying from 100 to 120 

 proof, and the remainder manufacture high, grade alcohol of 180 to 190 

 proof. Some molasses, obtained from the neighboring sugar mills, is 

 mixed with the fermenting sap. Control experiments, described later, 

 which embody both types of stills, were run on two of these distilleries. 



DISTILLERY METHODS. 



Fermentatio7%. — The distilleries receive the tuba in its partially fer- 

 mented condition, contaminated by many forms of undesirable organisms, 

 and treat it by methods varying from those which are fairly scientific 

 and economical, to the most crude and wasteful means which accompany 

 an almost entire lack of scientific and practical knowledge of the tech- 

 nique of alcohol production. The tuba is first transported to large, 

 wooden fermenting tanks, some of which hold as much as 10,000 liters. 

 A common size is 2.5 meters diameter and 2.5 meters height. Some time 

 ago the Collector of Internal Eevenue ordered several sanitary improve- 

 ments in the distilleries, among the first of which was the abolition of 

 fermentation tanks resting upon the dirt floors. The stench of the 

 fermenting tuba, leaking from rotting wooden tanks into earthen floors 



