232 jouknal, e.a.s. (ceylon). [Vol. IL, Past II. 



pampered slave-owners, and directing a thoroughly practical 

 crasade against Negro slavery. Every consideration there- 

 fore both of profit and humanity stimulates us to carry out 

 this idea. Yet it seems singular that it should never have 

 been attempted before, as the sap, or " toddy " as it is 

 generally called, has been, I presume, from time immemorial 

 made into the form of jaggery, which is however a far 

 inferior mode of rendering it useful for purposes of domestic 

 economy, it being with difficulty prevented from deli- 

 quescing, while sugar, from its being in separate crystals 

 of considerable hardness, .offers more resistance to the 

 humidity of the atmosphere. 



Having seen small samples of sugar made from the toddy, 

 I determined about three months ago to try two young 

 trees, six years old and coming into bearing, to see what 

 quantity of sap they would yield, and whether the product 

 could be readily manufactured into a useful and marketable 

 article, and as far as the experiments have been carried 

 (only as yet on a small scale) the result is very satisfactory. 

 The natives have long been in the habit of making a very 

 superior kind of white jaggery, and therefore it was only 

 natural to suppose that if they could succeed in making it 

 either white or black (at least, some they make with lime 

 is dark brown) at their pleasure, any one accustomed to 

 sugar making could produce a superior article at once from 

 the tree, it being also quite easy, as has been proved here, 

 to make a good grained sugar from the jaggery, and even 

 from the common impure article manufactured at Point 

 Pedro from the palmyra toddy, used for binding fine 

 chunam work. 



There are several ways of taking the sap here, which it 

 may perhaps be useful to detail before proceeding to the 

 manufacture of the sugar : that is to say, the mode of 

 cutting the flower-stalk is the same in all cases, but I mean 



