A NEW GINGER DISEASE IN GODAVARI 
DISTRICT, 
BY 
S. SUNDARARAMAN, M.A., 
Government Mycologist, Madras. 
[Received for publication on 10th February, 1922.] 
DurinG the month of November 1920, the writer’s attention was first 
called to this disease at Modekurru in Godavari District. The village was 
visited and the crop examined. It was reported that the two previous crops 
had suffered considerable loss. It was difficult to estimate at that time how 
serious the disease might prove to be. In a letter one of the garden owners 
stated that more than 75 per cent. of the plants were found affected by the 
disease. 
In this village and other villages in the neighbourhood ginger occupies 
an important place in cultivation. In almost all high level lands, every ryot 
erows it in small plots. It is sometimes irrigated from wells. The land is 
well prepared and manuring by sheep-penning is common. The rhizomes are 
planted in June and sometimes in the first week of July and the crop is ready 
for harvest from January to March. The plants occupy the ridges and are 
5 to 6 inches apart in lines 1 to 14 feet apart. When full grown the crop 
presents a very luxuriant appearance. It is always grown pure. In its early 
stages it is protected by shade. The crop under shade always looks better and 
the rhizomes are reported to grow bigger. Sometimes ginger is found culti- 
vated in the midst of coconuts. In good garden lands it is raised year after 
year without any rotation. In this case the only preliminary treatment the 
land receives is crow-barring in February and subsequent levelling in June. 
Often, the seeds are planted close, the crop is thick and there is little penetration 
of light and air— conditions which favour disease when bad weather supervenes. 
In this district the average yield from a ten-cent plot is 4 putties or 
¢ 209") 
