THE WILD DATE PALM OP INDIA. 



255 



brought to boiling point, the defecation being assisted by potash 

 temper and sprinkling in of cold water. After skimming, it is filtered 

 through a cotton cloth, and the clarified syrup boiled briskly until 

 the water is evaporated to such a degree as to allow the sugar to 

 form a hard crystal as it cools. It is then poured into an earthen 

 cone, and, when cold, the plug is withdrawn, and the syrup allowed to 

 drain from it, assisted, as in the dullooah process, by the application 

 of the damp weed or seala. As it becomes whitened by the latter, it 

 is scraped off, sun-dried, and packed for sale. The syrup, as it col- 

 lects from the cones, is boiled up with fresh goor, and produces, by 

 the same process, an inferior or second quality of gurpatta; the 

 syrups of the latter are once more boiled alone, and produce a still 

 inferior weak and reddish sugar, called by the manufacturers 

 " jerunnee," which is literally "lasts." Gurpatta, if well made, and 

 pure from mixture of other kinds, is of a bright and clean aspect, fine 

 and dry ; and, if protected from the weather, w^ill keep without injury 

 throughout the rainy season. The ordinary yield of gurpatta from 

 three maunds (40 seers each) of good goor is reckoned as follows : 



Mds. srs. 



First or white gurpatta 20 



Inferior or mixed ditto 10 



Syrup or jerunnee 10 



Molasses .. .. 1 28 



Loss 12 



Total 3 



5th. Dobarah is a quality superior to gurpatta, being a good white, 

 dry, and well-crystallized sugar. The process is similar to that of 

 the gurpatta ; but the material used being dullooah instead of khaur, a 

 purer sugar is obtained, which much resembles the crushed refined 

 sugar of the European refiner. 



The following further details are given by Babu Eamshunker, Sen, 

 Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector, Jessore : 



After all that has been written on this subject by Colonel Gastrell 

 in his Statistical Eeport, dated 1868, and by Mr. Westland in his 

 account of Jessore, dated 1870, very little remains to be said on this 

 most important branch of native industry ; but still, as my investiga- 

 tions were directed towards the ascertainment of the present state of 

 date cultivation and the manufacture of sugar from the juice of the 

 tree, I shall attempt to record the results of these inquiries. 



In May and June seeds are gathered from under old date trees and 

 sown broadcast in a nursery near enough to the ryot's house. They 

 sprout forth within fifteen to thirty days, and sooner if there is an 

 intervening downpour. The seedlings are then fenced round in order 

 to save the tender leaves from the bite of the goat or cattle. As soon 

 as two leaves appear a weeding begins, which is kept up twice in the 

 year as long as the plants continue in the nursery for two or three 

 years. After this term, when the rains begin to fall copiously, they 

 are transplanted into an open garden, which is prepared by four or 

 five ploughings and manured with sweepings and cowdung. A high 

 and rich ground is always preferred ; but soils which are of a mixed 



