Vol. XII. Xo. 279. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



SUGAR AND RICE IN INDIA. 



The following facts are taken from a recent 

 consular trade report, anil appear in the Modern Sugar 

 Planter for November 16. 



Sugar comes second in importance in the imports into 

 India, and represented nearly (iO per cent, of the total value 

 of the imports of food and drink The arrivals of ca\w sugar 

 during the year ended March 1912, amounting to 9, 887, 69-1 

 cwt. of 112 K). each, compared with 11,814,187 cwt., for the 

 preceding year. Java supplied 8,160,468 cwt., Mauritius 

 1,709,773 cwt., and China 12,656 cwt. The imports of 

 beet sugar amounted to 2.54,1. '58 cwt., against 724,9-58 cwt. 

 for the fiscal year ended March 1911. Au.stria- Hungary 

 furnishes the greater part of the beet sugar .supplies, the 

 receipts from that country for the year ended March 1912, 

 amounting to 241,433 cwt, compared with 714,097 cwt. for 

 the preceding year. 



The Indian sug^r cro|> gathered at the beginning of 

 1911 was satisfactory in most; places and was estimated at 

 2,217,800 tons of raw sugar compared witli an average if 

 2,034,400 tons for the preceding five years The good prices 

 in 1911 stimulated planting, with the result that the crop 

 gathered at the beginning of the present yenr is believed to 

 have exceeded the previous yeai's figure.s liy 10 per cent, in 

 the area p^'lanted, and the total yield, exclusive of palm sugar, 

 is estimated at about 2,390,400 tons. The foregoing figures 

 comprise only those tracts that make returns of cane cultiva- 

 tion. It is believed that India produces about 3,000,000 

 tons of cane sugar. 



Rice is the staple food of most of India, and about 3.5 

 per cent, of the cultivated acreage in liritish India is under 

 this product. Burma furnishes about three-fourths of the 

 Indian shipments. The rice is principally exported from 

 January until April. This product arrives on the western 

 markets simultaneously with supplies from Saigon, Siam, and 

 other principal sourcei^, and the market is therefore glutted 

 and prices depressed. .Java, being south of the Equator, 

 harvests its rice about six months later than India, and the 

 crop, being sold on bare market.^, brings a much larger price. 

 The question has been raised whether it might not be possible 

 10 adopt modern silos with a view to storing the Indian rice 

 and marketing it at a later date. 



The rice crops of 19I01I and 1911-12 in the area that 

 furnished forecasts were estimated at 27,896,900 and 

 26,099,600 tons for the two years, respectively, as compared 

 with an average of 23.167,300 tons for the previous five years. 



Ceylon is the largest purchaser of Indian rice, the ship- 

 ments to that Colony for the year 1911-12 amounted to 

 380,978 tons. Other markets were: Japan, 140,922 tons; 

 China, 38,214 tons (not including large shipments by way of 

 Straits Settlements); Java, 277,869 tons; Germany, 262,113 

 tons; United Kingdom, 136,778 tons; Xetherlands, 151,372 

 tons; Austria- Hungary, 134,301 tons. Included in the above 

 figures rice in the husk was exported to the amount of .55,263 

 tons, valued at .f;!, 180,000, of which Ceylon took 33,901 tors 

 and Straits Settlements 20,844 tons. 



CARDAMOMS. 



The following description and account of the 

 cultivation of cardamom.s is taken from the Semi- 

 Annual I Report of Messrs. Schimmel & Co., dated 

 October 1912. The original article appeared in the 

 Chemist and Druggist, 1912, p. 367. 



The cardamoms of British commerce are all derived from 

 Elettaria Cardamomtim, Maton, N.O. Zingiboraceae, which 

 grows wild or is cultivated on the Malabar coast and in 

 Ceylon. There is a large market for the .spice in Calcutta; 

 the annual consumption in India and Burma is computed to 

 be nearly 1,000,000 lb. Formerly scarcely any other than 

 Malabar cardamoms were imported into Britain, but the 

 Mysore variety now affords most of the fine quality. The 

 latter plant possesses a more robust habit and bears exposure 

 better than the Malabar type It is not known how the 

 district name 'Mysore' came to designate the variety of 

 a cardamom plant. There appear to be two varieties of 

 Malabar plants, var. minus being confined to Southern India 

 and var. majuii growing in Ceylon, The latter is distin- 

 guished by its shorter stems, broader leaves and more 

 globose fruit. In the shady mountain forests of Canara, 

 Cochin and Travancore the cardamom plant grows be- 

 tween the altitudes of 2,500 and 5,000 feet. The plant 

 is best suited to a rich, moist, loamy soil, protected from 

 strong winds. These conditions are met with in the betel- 

 nut and pepper gardens of Mysore and of Canara, and also 

 in the cultivated cardamom valleys of Ceylon. 



In the forest district of Coorg (Mysore) the cardamom 

 gardens are laid out in February or March, simply by making 

 clearings in the forest, a space of some 20 to 30 yards of 

 jungle being left between the gardens. Superstition plays 

 an important part, felling of the treps being only permissible 

 on certain days of the week and before noon. The natives 

 also believe that the presence of such plants as ebony, 

 nutmeg and pepper favourably atfeots the development 

 of the cardamom plants. In the fifth year a full crop 

 is produced. After seven years more, the plants be- 

 come sickly. Some of the large trees in the jungle- 

 screen surrounding the fields are felled; the falling trunks 

 kill many of the cardamom stems, thus stimulating the 

 rhizomes to produce new shoots, thereby renewing the pro- 

 ducing capacity of t'le plot another eight years, when the 

 process of renovation is repeated. 



In Ceylon th" cultivation is carried out much more 

 systematically. The favourite cardamom districts are Matale, 

 Medamahanwara and Hewahata. The undergrowth of the 

 land intended for a cardamom plantation is cleared; holes are 

 dug li to 2 feet wide, 12 inches to 15 inches deep and 

 7 feet apart in rows at a similar distance. The bulbs must 

 not be planted too deep or they will rot. The use of seed- 

 lings instead of bulbs is increasing, however, the Mysore 

 variety being most frequently grown from seed. Curiously 

 enough, only a small proportion of the seed germinates 



In Ceylon the plants flower almost all the year n.and; 

 picking begins at the end of August and continues until April. 

 The fruit is carefully dried by exposure to the sun, or in wet 

 weather by artificial heat Machines for removing the calyx 

 tube and the stalk have been introduced, and after passing 

 through these the capsules are graded and treated with 

 sulphur vapour. 



A table given at the end of the article shows that 

 the culti\ation of cardamoms in Ceylon has been 

 steadily decreasing. In 1911 the area and export were 

 7,H00 acres and .564,819 ft),: in 1910, they were 

 7,426 acres and 639,007 lb. 



