COCO-NUT PRODUCTS 175 



year, from April 1909 to April 1910, the average daily 

 yield of 5785 trees, which furnish toddy for seven 

 distilleries in Tayabas, was 0*65 of a litre. The 

 averages for the different distilleries varied from 0*36 

 of a litre daily for 700 trees up to 1*03 litres daily for 

 1052 trees. These differences could not be explained 

 by Gibbs except on the supposition that in many cases, 

 or in all,- the want of expert treatment resulted in a 

 much smaller yield than might have been obtained. 

 Accordingly, he had measurements made on 100 

 supposedly average trees in the groves whose product 

 was brought to one of the distilleries. These measure- 

 ments continued over 33 days, and the average 

 yield was 1*435 litres per day for each tree. Two of 

 the days were rainy, and leaving these out of account 

 the average for 31 clear days was 1*38 litres. Since 

 the average yield for all the trees under observation 

 for the year was 0'65 of a litre, while 1*38 litres were 

 obtained by especially expert collecting, Gibbs concludes 

 that intelligent management will increase the production 

 per tree by more than 112 per cent. There is no 

 doubt that this high rate of production would exhaust 

 the tree rather rapidly. Nevertheless, the principal 

 item in the cost of toddy is the collecting, and it would 

 therefore be a very great improvement in the business 

 if the collectors were all expert, and the trees given 

 correspondingly longer resting periods. 



There are Philippine data available on a still larger 

 scale. For the calendar year 1909 there were tapped 

 for toddy in the province of La Laguna 10,109 trees, 

 and the total yield was 2,103,286 litres, or an average 

 for the year of 208 litres per tree. 



Composition of the Sap. — Gibbs's analysis of the 

 composition of sap in which fermentation had been pre- 

 vented as completely as possible shows the following 

 results : 



[Table 



