168 



SUGAR. 



the crust being broken, fresli leaves are added, and the process is 

 repeated until complete crystallization has taken place. 



There is one fact which must strike the most casual inquirer into the 

 early history of sugar manufacture in its birthplace, and it is one to 

 which the attention of the reader may here be directed. The raw 

 produce, which goes by the name of goor or jaggery, is made chiefly 

 by a number of farmers acting in concert. The process is carried 

 out in common by the association, but is specially deputed to some of 

 their number who confine themselves to this branch, the produce of 

 each man's land being sent to the common factory. The goor is 

 then handed over by the ryots to another distinct caste, the goldars, 

 who make the solid sugar, some of whom again are sugar-boilers or 

 refiners, and others confectioners, who make candy, &c. The vital 

 principle of division of laboui' is thus most strictly carried out, the 

 whole manufacture involving at least the employment of two sections 

 of one caste, and, where it is largely followed, two distinct castes and 

 no less than five or six sub-classes, which implies its division into as 

 many different branches. 



The following account is given by Baboo Joykishen Mookerjee, 

 a zemindar of Hooghly : "Two species of sugar-canes, known in this 

 country as the kajlee and the pooree canes, have from time immemorial 

 been cultivated in this district (Burdwan). These canes always gave 

 the cultivators very good returns, and their cultivation therefore, in 

 former times, gradually increased with the increased demand of sugar 

 for exportation. 



" Whether these crops were native to the soil or merely accli- 

 matized is not known ; but no account of the total failure of these 

 canes, such as was the case with what were called the Bombay canes, 

 can be gathered from the accounts of the oldest inhabitants. More 

 than forty years ago Mr. McDowal introduced the red canes from the 

 district of Rungpore, and they were thence called the Shahiban 

 Khooshir. The cultivation of this species of cane spread very 

 rapidly, as the cultivators found that they yielded more juice and 

 contained more saccharine matter than the country ones ; and in 

 about eight years it spread gradually over Hooghly in common with 

 the other southern districts. About the same time, that is, nearly 

 thirty-five years ago, the red or Bombay cane was introduced in the 

 district from Nimgee Bungalow, a place a few miles from Calcutta. 

 It was at first cultivated at Bally, Ooterparah, Eughoonathpore, and 

 their neighbourhood, but in a few years the cultivation gradually 

 extended to the banks of the Damoodah, close to Pergunnah Chunder- 

 kona. A very great impetus was given to the cultivation of sugar- 

 cane in this and the other districts by the large diminution in the 

 supply of sugar from Mauritius and the West Indies, in consequence 

 of the restrictions imposed about this time on the slave trade and slave 

 laboui'. For more than fifty years the cultivators reaped luxui'iant 

 harvests of the Shahiban and Bombay sugar-canes, and improved 

 their condition to no small extent. Brick-built houses sprang up in 

 every direction, and the condition of a large portion of the tenantry 

 was altogether very cheering. In 1854 and 1855, however, the first 

 symptoms of the blight, which totally exterminated these valuable 

 crops from the district, first made their appearance. A few cane 



