THE WILD DATE PALM OF INDIA. 



261 



The leaves cut off before tapping season are used as fuel in the 

 manufacture of goor, and answer the purpose a month. At Kali- 

 gunge hedia patis (leaf mats) are manufactured from the leaves and 

 sewn into bags, into which sugar is put before being carried to 

 Nalchith and other places. In the two subdivisions I have gone over, 

 4205 acres of land are occupied by date trees, exclusive of those 

 growing all round the corners of ryots' houses. The approximate 

 number of date trees in these two subdivisions is 1,033,825, or about 

 two hundred and forty trees per acre, A beegah of land (one-third 

 of an acre) is generally planted with one hundred trees ; but as some 

 of them die in the course of time, the above estimate is not beyond 

 the mark. In both these subdivisions there are 2720 juice-boiling 

 stoves or bains. For each opening in which a boiler is placed, the 

 zemindar levies a tax of 1 anna 3 pie, and 6 pie for each of 

 the side openings through which fuel is applied. Although the culti- 

 vation of the date tree has gone on increasing from year to year, on 

 account of the increased demand for sugar and the shipments made to 

 Europe, still there are no accui'ate data available for the purpose 

 of ascertaining the actual proportion of increase. In Mr. Westland's 

 Treatise, p. 207, it is stated that in 1791 the annual produce of sugar 

 cultivation was 20,000 maunds, of which half was exported to Cal- 

 cutta. The increase in cultivation within the last eighty-four years 

 may be imagined from the fact that in the subdivisions of Jhenidah 

 and Magurah alone, comprising as they do only one-third of the 

 district, the production was 391,780 maunds of goor and 137,000 

 maunds (82 lbs.) of sugar in the year 1873, of w^hich nearly 50,000 

 maunds have been sent down to Calcutta. There is an extensive date 

 cultivation in the subdivisions of Jessore and Nurrail, which has not 

 been taken into account in this estimate. 



Manufacture of Date Sugar from Goor. — The season for manufac- 

 turing powdered sugar from goor begins about the 20th Aghran 

 (1st December) and ends on the 15th or 20th of Jyet (end of May), 

 extending over a full period of six months. 



The moat important place in this district (Jessore) with regard to 

 the manufacture of sugar is Chaudpur. The process adopted is 

 easier than at first may be imagined. 



The earthen jars into which the cultivator puts his goor are broken 

 up by the sugar manufacturer and the contents poured into a wicker 

 basket, through which the scum oozes out below into a pan. On 

 the fifth day, a river weed, called patta seala, found in abundance 

 in the bed of the Bhyrab and Kabadak, is placed over the goor in 

 the basket and kept for eight days. When the seala dries up, it is 

 thrown away, and the upper stratum in the basket, consisting of about 

 5 seers, is scraped off the surface. New seala is again put and kept 

 on for eight days, and the above process repeated. In the second and 

 third processes the sugar is about 10 seers each time ; in the fourth 

 process the yield is 7 seers, and in the fifth 5 seers. In the last 

 stage the yield is about 13 seers of inferior sugar. So from 3 J 

 maunds of goor IJ maund of sugar (sold at times at Es. 10 per 

 maund) is thus obtained. The average price of a maund of goor 

 being Es. 2, Es. 7 worth of goor produces Es. 12-8 worth of sugar. 



