THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Juke 1, 1865. 



484 SUGAR FROM THE ARENGA PALM. 



Congress of Giessen, I spoke of the preparation of sugar from palms as 

 the only rational mode of obtaining sugar in the future, basing my 

 opinion on the following grounds : — Sugar, by itself, being only com- 

 posed, in state of purity, from carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, does not 

 take anything from the soil ; but the plants now mainly cultivated for 

 extracting sugar, viz., the Beta vulgaris and the Saccliarum officinarum, 

 require for their development a great amount of substanees from the 

 soil in which they grow, whence it follows that their culture exhausts 

 the soil. But this is not the only evil ; what is worse is, that the space 

 now occupied by beet-roots in Europe, and by sugar-cane between the 

 tropics, might and ought to serve for the culture of wheat or of forage in 

 Europe, and for rice under the tropics ; and it is my opinion that, con- 

 sidering the increase of population, the time is not far distant when it 

 will be absolutely necessary to devote to the culture of wheat or rice 

 the lands now employed for beet-root or cane. While the cane and beet- 

 root want a soil tit for cereals, the Aren palm prospers on soils entirely 

 unfit for their culture, so unfit, indeed, that one might try in vain to 

 grow on them rice or cereals ; the Aren palm leaves the profound 

 valleys of Java, in some parts of the island extends from the shores 

 of the sea to the interior, where the tree is found in groups, and it 

 is very possible to make rich plantations of that fine tree. There is 

 one drawback, but not a very serious one : the tree must be eleven 

 or twelve years old before it will yield sugar. When, however, it com- 

 mences, the operation can be repeated during several years, and the 

 preparation of the sugar becomes a continuous industry and not an 

 interrupted one, as it is now. According to my average, a field of 

 thirty acre.-? (f acre) planted with those trees should produce yearly 

 2,400 kilogrammes of sugar on a soil quite unfit for any other kind of 

 culture." 



The following further details respecting the uses of this palm are 

 from Seeman's " Popular History of the Palms " : — 



The Arenga saccharifera, Labill. ; Saguerus RumpTiii, Roxb. ; Boras- 

 sus Gomulus, Lour. ; Gomutus saccharifera, Spr. ; occurs in great abund- 

 ance in a wild state throughout the islands of the Indian Archipelago, 

 hut is more common in the interior, principally in the hilly districts, than 

 on the sea-coast, and it is also very generally cultivated by the various 

 people who inhabit that region. It has been called one of the most 

 useful of all the palms ; and how well it deserves that epithet may be 

 judged from a perusal of the accounts published by Roxburgh, Griffith, 

 Marsden, Low, and, above all, by Crawfurd. Like all plants enjoying a 

 wide geographical distribution, this tree is distinguished by names as 

 numerous as the languages of the countries which claim it as a member 

 of their flora. With the usual copiousness of these languages on similar 

 occasions, each useful part of the plant is distinguished by a special 

 name. In Malay, the tree is called Anoa (Anoive according to Griffith, 

 and Anan according to Bennet), the liquor (toddy) obtained from it, 



