m 
The collection of the tuba in the nipales is done by means of 
bamboo receptacles attached to the stalk from which the fruit has been 
cut. A thin slice is cut from the stalk, the bamboo joint fastened and 
left to receive the juice which oozes or drips into it. These are collect- 
ed twice daily, transported by “ banca ” to the distillery and their 
contents allowed to ferment before being put into the still. 
A hectare of nipa palms during the season produces 4000 liters of 
sap or tuba. Distillers who own nipa lands manufacture spirits from 
tuba taken from their lands and buy from others and (under the old 
methods) from 10 liters of tuba obtain one liter of proof spirits. 
Distillation is carried on by stills of direct heat antiquated type, 
and up to recently there were in use throughout the provinces several 
hundred small primitive stills, called cauas. The owners of cauas, 
however, are gradually abandoning their crude and expensive methods 
and are installing a small modern apparatus of local invention which 
has been designed specially in the interests of the small owners of 
nipales. 
Over the fireplace, which is built of stones and mud, is placed an 
open boiler upon which a hogshead minus the heads is seated, and on 
the upper end of the hogshead is another open boiler which constitutes 
the condenser. A piece of bamboo leads through the hogshead at a 
short distance below the upper boiler; the part of the bamboo within 
the hogshead being cut in the form of a gutter to receive the spirit as 
it drops from the surface of the condenser. 
By means of the derrick-like arrangement the hogshead is swung 
sufficiently clear of the boiler to allow introduction of the charge of 
tuba. After being replaced the joint is banked with rags and clay to 
retain the steam. The upper boiler is filled with cold water and the 
fire started. Wet steam, carrying with it alcohol, is generated, rises 
in the hogshead, strikes the cool surface of the upper boiler, condenses 
and trickles down to the middle and drops into the bamboo gutter and 
flows to the receiving jar outside. This apparatus requires that boiling 
be kept up for two or three hours. With a caua such as that shown 
in the photo, a low proof spirit is produced, very little being over 50 per 
cent. 
Such a process of distillation is wasteful. Government control of 
the manufacture of spirits has revolutionized this branch of the indus- 
try. Methods of manufacture and commercial customs in the Philippine 
Islands being radically different from the customs in vogue in the 
United States, the system of excise taxation and the regulations for 
the control of the spirit distilling industry have been devised to meet 
conditions. 
By grouping a number of cauas in one distillery it has been possible 
in one or two cases to comply with the regulations, but the 450 cauas 
which have been in operation are disappearing, and their owners adopt- 
ing modern methods, and installing the small modern still known as 
the “ modern caua. ” Fifty of these machines have been installed 
or are being installed in their place in the various provinces. 
These modern cauas, with copper coil, are made in Manila and are 
peculiarly constructed with a view to retaining the weedy taste so 
popular with the consumers of vino de nipa and vino de coco . These 
