June, 1912.] 



519 



Edible Products. 



light soil. Flowering occurs in two or 

 three years. The way in which the plant 

 thrives depends on early care in cultiva- 

 tion ; and the beauty of the fruit depends 

 on the climatic conditions of the place. 

 In hot and dry regions, when the plants 

 grow vigorously in light soils, the fruits 

 are superior. In a moist locality they 

 will remain stunted and produce small 

 and inferior fruits. 



According to the analyses contained in 

 the tables published by the writer, the 

 custard apples, on reaching maturity, 

 have 46-75% of skin, 45"55 of pulp and 

 7-69% of seed.* 



Their composition is 63'94 per cent, of 

 water, 33'68 per cent, of organic subs- 

 tances and 2'38 per cent, of ash, With 

 regard to the composition of the pulp, 

 which, as stated, forms 45*55 per cent, of 

 the fruit, it is as follows : — 



Water .. ... 3806 



Ash ... ... 0-33 



Fibre ... ... 0'42 



Fat ... ... 0-83 



Sugary substances ... 0'72 

 Non-nitrogenous substances 4'54 



Proteids ... ... 0'65 



45 55 



Examination of the ash suggests that 

 its relatively high grade of potassium 

 and phosphoric acid indicates that pro- 

 per manuring when planting, and other 

 fertilizers applied a little before bloom- 

 ing will give excellent results. 



* H. 0, Priasen Geerligs (Cham. Ze.it. 1897, 

 21, 719,) gives analyses of the Anona muricata 

 reticulata and squamosa, natives of Java. 



The smaller A. squamosa contains a less pro- 

 portion of sugar than the two others. The 

 analysis is : 50 per cent, of pulp, 38 per cent, of 

 skin and 12 per cent, seed In 100 per cent, of 

 pulp, there was 0'5 per ceut. of saccharose, 5'4 

 per cent, of glucose and 3 6 per cent, of fructose; 

 total of sugary substances 9 -50 per cent. The 

 Anona recticulata contained 10 - 42 per cent, of 

 sugary substances and the A. muricata 11 "62 

 per cent. 



Cf. Jahresbericht uber Agriculture- Chemie, 

 Neue Folge XX, 1897, pp. 309-310. Berlin, 1898. 

 The Anona is cultivated successfully at neggio- 

 Calabria in Italy, 



JAGGERY MAKING. 



(From the Indian Agriculturist, Vol. 

 XXXVII., No. 4, April 1, 1912.) 

 An Agricultural Leaflet issued by the 

 Department of Agriculture, Madras, 

 says : — 



In this Presidency jaggery is prepared 

 from the toddy of various palms and 

 from the juice of the sugarcane. The 

 product from the palms is distinguished 

 from the other by prefixing to the word 

 jaggery the name of the palm from which 

 it is made ; the present paper deals only 

 with cane jaggery. This jaggery (Telugu, 

 bellam,— Tamil, vellam) is obtained by 

 evaporating the juice expressed from the 

 cane to such an extent that the mass 

 solidifies on cooling. 



For successful jaggery making, canes 

 should be milled only when they are 

 properly ripe. Sugarcane generally 

 ripens in ten to twelve months, though 

 some varieties take longer to mature. 

 The cane crop usually puts on a yellow 

 appearance as it ripons. but this may 

 also be caused long before the canes are 

 ripe by irregular or deficient irrigations, 

 by insufficient manuring or by bad culti- 

 vation. When canes are properly ripe 

 they stop growing, all the leaves appear 

 to spring from one and the same point, 

 shrivel up and remain erect instead of 

 bending down. In a well-grown crop, 

 if the side leaves are dead and the eye- 

 buds are fully developed and firm almost 

 to the top of the cane, it may be con- 

 sidered to be quite ripe- At this stage 

 the cane contains the greatest quantity 

 of pure sugar. As it is very difficult to 

 judge accurately if the canes are ripe, 

 the safest plan is to make a few trial boil- 

 ings, to see if the juice yields a reason- 

 able amount of jaggery. Unripe canes 

 may contain a great quantity of total 

 solids in this juice, but the jaggery from 

 these is liable to run into molasses in the 

 rainy weather owing to high percentage 

 of impure sugar. 



A cane crop is to be watered a few days 

 before it is cut, as this increases the 

 juice and produces better jaggery, 



