262 



THE WILD DATE PA.LM OF INDIA. 



The scum which has oozed and is called mat, is again boiled, and 

 sugar is manufactured from it under the above process. The second 

 mat or scum is called cMtta goor, used for sweetening tobacco and 

 manufacturing rum. 



The sugar thus obtained is called dalua — from its being produced 

 in clods which are beaten and reduced to powder. 



The manufacture of schachi (or real) sugar is carried on in the 

 following manner : — Goor purchased in tillias (pots) is transferred 

 into gunny bags, which are pressed betwixt bamboos in a hanging 

 posture. The granular goor which remains in the bag is called 

 Miar, and the droppings — mat hliar — are then boiled in a pan mixed 

 up with milk water and passed through gunny and cloth sieves, and 

 reboiled and transferred to semi-elliptical pots called hharneas with a 

 hole at the bottom. These pots are arranged over shelves and sub- 

 jected to a course of seala refining as in the case of dalua sugar. 

 The oozing during this process is called mat goor. When the 

 second course of seala is put on, the droppings are called jherani, and 

 so on. The process is repeated until the pot is well-nigh exhausted. 

 The sugar produced is called (real) sugar No. 1. The mat goor of 

 the bags and of the first refining process are boiled together and 

 become chitta goor. By boiling the jherani goor, (Jlierani) sugar 

 No. 2 is produced by same process as the real sugar. Loaf-sugar or 

 dobara cliini is manufactured from the dalua, which is boiled in water 

 and skimmed with milk. It is then put into an open earthen pot 

 perforated below. After the scum has dropped out two days, seala is 

 placed on the sui-face of the sugar, and after eight days it arrives at 

 its refined state. The droppings are boiled and a kind of sugar 

 inferior to the above, called ehhara chini, is manufactured from the 

 same. The second droppings are again manufactured into a sugar 

 called jpetiar (basket) sugar. The sugar crop is a large one this year 

 (1873), but owing to low rates in the English market the article is 

 moving slowly. In 1872, 170,000 bazaar maunds of sugar were sold 

 off in the Chandpur market, of which 30,000 maunds were for con- 

 sumption in the Mofussil. 



In the Madras Presidency sugar is extracted from the sap of the 

 palmyra palm, and there are 10,000 acres covered with this tree, 

 chiefly in Bellary. The spadix or young flowering branch is cut off 

 near the top, and an earthen pitcher tied on to the stump. The sap 

 runs into this pitcher, which is emptied and replaced every morning 

 after the stump has l3een again cut ; and this process is repeated 

 until the supply of the sap has been completely exhausted. Powdered 

 chunam (lime), which has the property of preventing fermentation, 

 is sprinkled on the outside of the earthen vessel in which the sap is 

 collected. This juice is then boiled down, and the sugar obtained 

 on drying the sediment by exposure. A tribe called Shanars draw 

 the toddy or juice from the tree. 



In Bengal the juice of the date palm, which is so much more 

 abundant in saccharine matter, is preferred for the manufacture of 

 sugar ; though it is not apparent why, in parts of the country where 

 the palmyra palm abounds and the people do not drink toddy, its 

 vinous sap is not utilized in the same way as in Madras. 



