GINGER. 95 



January or February, it is time to dig up the roots. When the 

 tubers have arrived at maturity, and have put forth stems, they 

 are fibrous, but before this takes place they are still succulent, and 

 if required for preser\'ing should then be taken up. Ginger is an 

 exhausting crop on the soil, and should not be planted on the 

 same ground two consecutive years. The yield per acre is said to 

 be 4,000 pounds and upwards."* 



The dried ginger received from Jamaica is prepared when the 

 stalks are wdiolly withered, the rhizomes then being about a year 

 old. This happens in January or February. The rhizomes are 

 dug up and separately picked, washed and scraped : they are then 

 dried in the sun and open air. The product is the^uncoated 

 ginger " of the shops, formerly called " wdiite ginger " {zingiber 

 alburn). The "coated ginger" of the shops has obviously not 

 undergone this careful preparation. 



Tfje following account of the cultivation of ginger in India, as 

 carried on in the Hill States adjoining the Ambalah district, was 

 supplied to the compilers of the Official Catalogue of the Indian 

 Department of the Vienna Universal Exhibition : — '' Ginger is 

 principally produced in Mahur Massa, Patni, Darra, Kothi, Kotahi, 

 Bagal and Jayal. The best pieces of last year's harvest are 

 selected and placed in the corner of a house in the month of 

 Phagan ; the heap is then smeared over and covered v/ith cow- 

 dung to keep the roots from drying up in Har month, when the 

 first rain falls. The land is ploughed up two or three times, and 

 then divided off into beds, with a little raised edge round each bed, 

 care being taken to make openings to let superfluous water run 

 off ; for if water stands on the crop the roots will rot. Little 

 pieces of the roots are then buried three inches deep in the soil at 

 intervals of nine inches, and the field is next covered over with 

 the leaves of trees, which keep the soil moist, and over the leaves 

 manure is spread to a depth of half an inch ; when it rains, the 

 water, impregnated with manure, filters readily through the leaves 

 to the roots. Artificial irrigation is not employed w^hile the rainy 

 season lasts, but from Assiih to Poh it is necessary. In the 

 month of Poh the plants are about two feet high. In the months 



* The production of ginger in Jamaica seems to be decreasing ; probably in 

 consequence of the exhausting nature of the crop unless a proper system of 

 cultivatiou be adopted. In 1887 a ginger worfcn 16s. per cwt. was worth 49s. 6d. 

 per cwt. in July, 1893. 



