THE ALCOHOL INDUSTRY. PART L 197 



planted to the acre and from each tree can be had 154 pounds of sago, giving the 

 enormous total of 61,600 pounds per acre. 



Tschirch * describes the uses of the palm in Java and discourages its cultiva- 

 tion for sugar because the production, 8,000 pounds per hectare, is insuflBcient. 



Deon " gives an analysis of the sugar produced from the sap of this palm, as 

 follows : 



Cane sugar 



87.97 



Reducing sugars: 





Glucose 



1.53 



Laevulose 



0.18 





1.71 



Gum 



4.88 



Water and volatile matter 



1.88 



Ash 



0.50 



Mannite 



3.06 



Beccari ^ states that he did not see palm wine extracted from this palm in 

 New Guinea, but that the operation was known and practiced in Papua on the 

 nipa and coconut; and"' in Sarawak, it is noted and appreciated not only for 

 its fermentable liquors and the sugar which can be obtained from this liquor, 

 but also for the strong, black fiber. Beccari ®* states that the sea Dyaks are 

 much given to the making of feasts to which they dedicate themselves with great 

 enthusiasm. At such times, they give themselves over to interminable ceremonies 

 accompanied by music, song, and banquets, with a profusion of viands inter- 

 spersed with frequent libations of palm wine and arrak. The first is produced 

 by the fermentation of the saccharine liquor which flows from the cut flowers 

 of Arenga saccharifera. 



Doctor Foxworthy, of the Bureau of Science, who has recently traveled extensi- 

 vely in Borneo, informs me that in Sarawak, British North Borneo, the sap is rarely 

 used as the beverage vino de palma, but that in Sambas, Dutch Borneo, it is 

 more extensively employed. 



TAPPING THE PALM. 



In order to obtain the sap, the flower stalk is beaten with a small stick or a 

 wooden mallet for a short time on a number of days, sometimes extending over 

 a period of several weeks, in order, probably, to produce a wound tissue. When 

 the proper stage is reached, the stalk is cut off close to the cluster of flowers or 



''"Indische Heil-und Nutzpflanzen, Berlin (1892), 159-161. 



'^Bull. Soc. chim. Paris (1879), 2, 32, 125. 



"Malesia, Genova (1877), 1, 78. 



°'Nelle Foreste di Borneo. Firenze (1902), 323. 



"Loc cit., 96. 



