THE MANUFACTURE OF DATE SUGAR. 



very inferior description in Bengal, and is seldom gathered except for its 

 seed, from which the young trees are raised. The fruit, indeed, consists 

 more of seed than of pulp, and altogether is only about one-fourth the 

 size of the Arabian kind brought annually to Calcutta for sale, and, when 

 fresh imported, a rich and favourite fruit there. This inferiority of the 

 Bengal fruit may no doubt be attributed to the entire neglect of its im- 

 provement there from time immemorial, and, perhaps, in some measure, to 

 the practice of tapping the trees for their sap, so universally followed in 

 the districts around Calcutta, its principal range of growth. 



The Date tree is met with in almost every part of Bengal Proper, but it 

 flourishes most congenially, and is found plentifully only in the alluvial 

 soils which cover its south-eastern portion, excepting only such tracts as 

 suffer entire submersion annually from the overflow of their rivers, as is 

 common in portions of the Dacca, Mymunsing, and Sunderbund districts. 

 The extent of country best suited for its growth, and over which it is found 

 most plentifully as above indicated, may therefore be taken as within an 

 a - ea stretching east and west about 200 miles, and north and south about 

 100 miles, and comprehending by a rough estimate about 9,000 square miles 

 — within an irregular triangular space. 



The practice of extracting its juice, however, for the production of sugar, 

 extends at present over a much smaller area, probably not more than two- 

 thirds of the above described space ; and if we consider further, how small 

 a portion of these favourite date districts even are as yet occupied by date 

 tree cultivation, the room for its future extension, even if confined to these 

 tracts alone, appears a wide one indeed. If we trace an irregular 

 parallelogram, stretching eastward from Kishengunge, in the Nuddea 

 district, to Backergunge, and from Mahduppore, in Furreedpore district 

 southward to the borders of the Sunderbunds, we shall find a space of 

 about 100 miles long, by 80 broad, and comprehending the district of 

 Jessore, with portions of Furreedpore, Nuddea, and Burrisaul, to which the 

 product of Date sugar is mainly confined, although the goor — or the first 

 raw produce made by boiling down the juice — is found commonly manu- 

 factured for native consumption on the spot, in many localities situated 

 beyond these assumed limits. 



Throughout the present Date tract, the quantity and quality of the sugar 

 produced vary considerably. The high and dry lands of parts of 

 Kishnaghur and Pubna yield a strong well-crystallised product, though less 

 in quantity than from trees of the Jessore and Sunderbunds soils; in which, 

 with a more rapid growth of the tree, a greater flow of sap, and a less rich, 

 though still good and grainy sugar, is produced. The cultivation in 

 these districts is accompanied by a great advantage, in the cheap and 

 abundant supply of fuel for boiling the juice and refining the sugar ; and 

 there is probably no part of Bengal where the cultivation may be extended, 

 with more profit than in the more elevated lands of the Sunderbund 

 grants. 



The young plants are raised from seed sown during the rains, and are 



