THE WILD DATE PALM OF INDIA. 



257 



hold the dao and nullies ; (5) the ahra or hook, on which the juice pot 

 is hung when he gets up and down the tree with it. 



Besides the cluster of date trees in and around a ryot's tenement, 

 large open gardens occupying broad areas of land are planted with 

 them. Sometimes they are planted along hedges and the boundary 

 ridges of fields. The tract of country south and west of the Naba- 

 gunga abounds with large date gardens, particularly the line of 

 country west of Magurah, where the land gradually rises higher and 

 higher as we approach the confines of the Nuddea district. 



South and west of Jhenidah the country may be said to be bristling 

 with date trees planted in square plots of ten or fifteen beegahs, and 

 these increase in number as we come nearer and nearer to the 

 Kabadak. The line north of the Kumar, being subject to inundation, 

 is not a well-planted date tract, the sugar-cane also having retained 

 its hold there to some extent. 



In October the side of the tree chosen for tapping is cleared of the 

 leaves, and the bark just below the head is cut into, so as to form an 

 oblong bare surface 15 inches by 12 inches, in proportion to the cir- 

 cumference of the tree. After a week, when this surface is perfectly 

 dry, its upper part is skilfully pared off, till the white and softer 

 wood becomes visible. An indenture is then made in the lower part 

 of the pared-off surface, along the sides of what appears to be an 

 obtuse angle, with the angular point turned downwards. An inch 

 below this point a split bamboo twig, seven or eight inches long, is 

 inserted into the tree in order to conduct the sap into the juice pot as 

 it oozes out of the white surfaces and passes in a thin slow stream 

 through the two sides of the angle as it were through two drains. If 

 there be not sufficient juice in the pared-off surface, it is left un- 

 touched for a week and cut anew after its being well dried up. If the 

 cut is deep before the surface is dry, the head of the tree pines away 

 and the juice decreases in quantity. Careless insertion of the bamboo 

 tube sometimes injures the young plant, which may cause its death. 



Date trees are divided into three classes, according to their age : 



(1) The comra or char a, or young plant, yielding from half to one 

 and a half seer of sap in the first year, and two to three seers subse- 

 quently per night. 



(2) The majhari, or middle-aged, called also uiit or nalgas — a tree 

 in the full swing of its juice-yielding career, supplying seven to nine 

 seers per night. 



(3) The hahni or daria, so named from its age and yielding its juice 

 late in the season. 



The trees are also classed as male and female — the former, which 

 bears no fruit, yielding the sap early in the season, being called 

 chotna ; while the latter is called haron, bearing fruits and yielding 

 the sap somewhat late. Middle-aged trees with robust heads yield 

 the largest quantity of juice ; the age at which it arrives at maturity 

 being five or six years after the first tapping. 



The trees of a date grove are divided into six portions (called palas) 

 for the convenience of tapping them by turns, which goes on in the 

 order described below. I should, however, mention here that the 

 first night's juice is called jeeran^ which is richer in quality and 



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