SUGAR.
Shakkar, AR., Gu.r., limn. Sonia, Sakar, . MALAY. Kyan, . . . . Gula, . . . . MALEAL. Shih-Mill-Sha-Vallg, CHIN. Acucar, . . . . PoRT. Sukker, . . . . DAN. Sachar, . . . . Pals. Suiker, . . . . Sarkara, . . . SANSK.
Sucre, FR. Azucar, SP.
Zucker, . . . . GER. Sock er, . . . . S w.
Sakxar, Sakkari, , GR. Sakkarai, . . . TAM.
Zucchero, . . . . IT. Panchadara, . . TEL. Saccbarum, . . . LAT.
The commercial sugars of Asia are chiefly the products of the Sacchartun officinarum, S. Sinense, Phcenix sylvestris, Borassus ilabelliformis, Cocos nueifera, Arenga saccharifera, Nipa fruticans, and Sorghum saccharatum.
Coeval with the use of other vegetable products for domestic purposes in India,appears to have been the employment of the juice of the sugar-cane ; though it would not seem that the ancients pos sessed any knowledge of the process by which this saccharine matter is converted into a crystal lized substance. But Marco Polo, who travelled in the east in the year 1250, found abundance of sugar produced in the province of Bengal ; and from the almost universal growth of the cane in that province at the first occupation of the country by the British, there is good reason for believing that its culture had rapidly extended at a very early period. From the earliest European inter course with India, sugar, in a great variety of forms, was met with in daily use. No Hindu lives without it, either as crystallized or in cakes called jagari. Upon the first possession of Calcutta by the E. I. Company, there was a flourishing ex port trade in sugar to the Indian _coa.sts, some of the Eastern Islands, and a few ports in Arabia and Persia, to the extent of about 1500 tons ; whilst the local consumption of the article was enormous. The quality of this sugar was, however, very in ferior ; and about the year 1776 some unsuccessful attempts were mado to introduce into India the Jamaica mode of growing the cane and manufac poring the sugar.
' In China, from unknown times, tho people have nanufactured sugar both froin the sugar-cane and rom the sorgo-cane. In the reign of the emperor ai-Tsung, of the Tang dynasty, the method of )oiling the crushed cane - was introduced into ..ze-chuen and other parts of China from Turke stan or Central Asia. Hence, in China, sugar is called tang, the name of the dynasty being com bined with the radical for food.
In Europe, cane-sugar has been largely sup plemented by that manufactured from beet-root.
One ton of beet-root is said to yield about 100 lbs. of raw or 55 lbs. of refilled sugar. The imports into Great Britain wero from— Year. Sugar-cane—tons. 13eet-root—tons.
1877, . . . . 144,119 . . . . 687,552 1878, • . . . 168,836 . . . . 565,351 In 1882, there were about 1,925,000 acres under sugar-cane in India, and 168,700 acres under date-palm, besides an area of 17,000 acres under palinym and cocoanut in the Madras Presid ency, from which sugar is made. Of the total area under sugar-cane, the North-Western Pro vinces alone comprise 921,000 acres ; the Panjab, 413,000 acres ; 13engal, 185,000 acres ; and Oudh, 146,000 acres. Next to these come the Central I'rovinces with 94,000 acres, and the Bombay Presidency with 89,000 acres ; the Iftulras Presid ency shows only 34,000 acres, and the remaining provinces have returned comparatively small areas. Of the total area under date-palm utilized for sugar-making, Bengal had 131,000 acres ; and next comes Mysore, then Madras, Burma, and Bombay, with areas respectively of 20,000, 4000, 3708, and 1000 acres.
The imports into and exports from India of sugar and sugar-candy have been as under :— Imported into India. Exported front India.
Year. Cwt. Rs. Year. Cwt. its.
1875-76 610,524 89,39,283 1875-76 107,288 11,04,274 1878-79 918,202 1,47,75,653 1878-79 51,043 6,96,792 1882-83 672,672 1,08,69,610 1882-83 1,207,42a67,86,420 Of the imports, four-fifths from Mauritius, one fifth from China and Stmits. The great bulk into Bombay, a small part into Burma, smaller into Beng,al, Madras, and Sind. The exports, in the form of sugar, sugar-candy, molasses, jagari, gur, etc., were chiefly to Great Britain. Large quantities of sugar are made from the juice of the pallnyra palm in the Jaffna Peninsula, Ceylon, chiefly in the neighbourhood of Point Pedro, the agent used to prevent fermentation being coralline, a little of which is put into each chatty. The coarse black sugar whidi results froin evaporation over fire, is poured into minute olah baskets (made of plaited leaves of the palmyra), and exported mainly to Pondicherry, where it is refined and crystallized. The natives of the interior obtain a sugar, the cakes of which very much resemble the maple sugar of North Atnerica, from the kittul palm, Caryota urens.