MTSORE AND OOOEO. 829 



jand in.valleya, ravines and level plains ; the total 

 area thus occupied being roughly computed at 

 30,000 acres. (See Revenue and Agricultural Depart- 

 ment's Statistics of sugar plants and sugar in 1888.) 

 The finest groves are found in the Districts of 

 Chitaldroog and Mysore, where the trees often 

 attain a large size. But the pernicious practice of 

 tapping very young trees and allowing the sap to 

 run too long from older ones, is highly inimical to 

 healthy development, and may account to some 

 extent for the stunted growth which is observable 

 in some of the plantations. The tapping season 

 should be strictly confined to the months of Decem- 

 ber, January, and February, when_the fall in temper- 

 ature facilitates the flow of sap. The tendency to 

 commence operations earlier and to pursue them 

 later than the above period will, it should be re- 

 membered, have a corresponding tendency to exhaust 

 the trees. In travelling through the toddy groves 

 at this season, a great number of chatties or earthen 

 vessels will be seen suspended to the trees at 

 varying heights from the ground, but always imme- 

 diately under the crown of leaves or between the 

 two crowns, as the case may be, and where a trian- 

 gular incision is made (mostly in a space cleared 

 among the lower leaves) for the flow of sap. The 

 revenue authorities are responsible for the farming 

 out of the groves to competent contractors, but the 

 process of tapping is systematically pursued by an 

 experienced class of workmen called Idigas or 

 toddy drawers, who operate upon the trees in 

 cycles of seven or more at a time. Toddy, that is 

 the crude , sap in a sweet or shghtly fermented 

 condition, is largely consumed in the villages ; while 

 a much smaller proportion is boiled down with the 

 object of manufacturing jaggery and date sugar. 

 Under the existing rules, arrack is not distilled from 

 the fermented 'juice, although this industry' is 



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