96 ODOKOGRAPHIA. 



of Sawcin, Bhadon and Assiih the field is weeded three times." 

 The writer of the above Eeport adds that '■' In the month of Poh, 

 the plants being about two feet high, have eight tubers to 

 each shoot ; these are dug out and buried in another place for a 

 mouth, and are then taken out, exposed to the sun for a day, and 

 are then tit for use." It is presumed that he means they are fit 

 for use as " green ginger," for he says, in continuation of the 

 Eeport : — " In order to dry ginger into ' south,' the fresh roots are 

 put into a basket, which is suspended by a rope, and then two men, 

 one on each side, pull it to and fro between them by a rope 

 attached, and thus shake the roots in the basket ; this process is 

 carried on for two hours every day for three days. After this the 

 roots are dried in the sun for eight days, and again shaken in the 

 basket. The object of the shaking together is to take off' the 

 outer scales and skin of the roots. A two days' further drying 

 completes the process." 



AYriting on the " Commercial Drugs of the Chinese province of 

 Kwang-tung," Dr. Hirth du Frenes of Amoy, China, says: — "Ginger 

 grows in nearly all parts of the province of Kwang-tung. Tlie 

 district of Xan'-hai, which belongs to the city of Canton, produces 

 greater quantities and a better quality than the other neighbouring 

 districts. The independent tribe of the Miso-tsu, in the mountains 

 at the north-western border of the same province, are also said to 

 produce large quantities of ginger. In the district of Hsin-hsing, 

 about 30 miles south of the city of Chao-ching, on the Western 

 Eiver, three-tenths of the fiat land and seven-tenths of the culti- 

 vated soil in the hills are planted with ginger. A distinction is 

 made between fiat land ginger (in the Canton dialect Ten-Keung), 

 wdiich is generally soft and tender, and mountain ginger {Shan- 

 Keung), which is brittle and very pungent. Tor home consumption 

 the Chinese pickle it in vinegar ; the more expensive syrup-ginger 

 {fong Kcung) is almost exclusively consumed by foreigners or 

 exported."* 



In a paper by Weynton on "The Commercial Products of Siam," 

 read before the East Indian Association in April, 1887, the 

 following information was given respecting " Siamese ginger ": — 

 " If well cultivated, highly manured and treated with care, it can 

 be grown at considerable profit. It is reared in a desultory 



* New Remedies, June, 1877. 



