THE ALCOHOL INDUSTRY. PART I. 165 



THE SAP OF THE COCONUT PALM AS A SOURCE OF SUGAR. 



No case of the use of the sap of the coconut palm for the production 

 of raw or crude sugar by the natives has been found in the Philippines. 

 If any sugar is made in this way the amounts must be exceedingly small. 

 In other countries fair quantities of sugar are produced from this source. 



The Tropical Agriculturist"^ states that about thirty years ago (about 1853) 

 the question of utilizing coconut palms for sugar arose in Ceylon. 



"The result of our inquiries was that although the juice, when collected, was 

 rich in saccharine matter, yet the cost of collection would render the enterprize 

 improfitable. What paj-s the native on a small scale will not pay Europeans 

 when the matter is entered into on commercial principles." 



Jayewardene °° writes that sugar manufactured by the natives is found in 

 almost every peasant's hut in Ceylon. 



"The process of manufacture followed by them is as follows: Meera, or sweet 

 toddy, which is made from ordinary toddy by putting a few pieces of hal potu, 

 the bark of the Vateria indicans [ = V. acuminata Hayne] cut small into the pot 

 that receives it from the flower to prevent its alcoholic fermentation and thus 

 retain its sugar unchanged, is boiled down to a thick sirup called peni. The 

 peni, when cool, is poured into clean earthenware vessels and placed on the dunia 

 (which answers to the hob in an English household) where a slow evaporation 

 and a deposition of crystals takes place." 



Schortt " in describing the process as carried on in India states : 



"The sap is poured into large pots over an oven, beneath which a strong wood 

 fire is kept burning, the dead fronds and other refuse of the plants being used 

 as fuel. The sap soon assumes a dark-brown semi-viscid mass, well known as 

 jaggery or gur, which whilst warm is poured into earthen pots or pans for 

 preservation. Ten to twelve seers of the sap yield one of jaggery; * * *. The 

 jaggery is placed in baskets and allowed to drain; the watery portion or molasses 

 dropping into a pan placed below. This is repeated, so that the jaggery or 

 sugar becomes comparatively white and free from molasses. * * * Thus 

 cocoa-nut sugar is chiefly met with in the form of jaggery. It is well known, 

 however, that it is capable of being refined, according to European principles, 

 and a certain amount of cocoa-nut sugar is regularly prepared." 



Crude sugar is made in Guam ^ by boiling down the fresh tuba in kettles 

 over an open fire. 



"Coconut sugar is not made so extensively in Guam at the present time as 

 formerly, before copra was in such gi-eat demand; but there are natives who 

 still make it rather than buy imported sugar from the stores, and many families 

 use the sirup 'almibar de tuba dulce' in their daily economy." 



VINEGAR. 



Watt" states that the toddy produces a very good vinegar on undergoing 

 acetous fermentation. "The vinegars prepared from the juices of the various 



""Trap. Agr. (1883), 568. 

 "'Ibid., 573. 



"Watt, George, A Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, Calcutta 

 (1889), 2, 452. 



"' SafTord, Loc. cit. 

 "Log. cit., 455. 



