I UK TURMERIC 



ill addition lo < a. i-iiiiiii ,i ti.in*ii;..ii,i and ' i>m-mlo-niunlniin . 

 iitNii-MKi i,,ri n,,-.ii 111 . .'i,hnit., and 'I'uffit i>i a IKI i i/iiin . Font. 



C. long-a, Linn. ; Fl. Br. Ind., vi., 214 ; Duthie and Fuller, 

 a/"! Garden Crops, pt. iii., 41, t. Ixxvii. ; Nicholls, Textbook Trop. Agri., 

 ; Mullison, Textbook Ind. Agri., iii., 186; Mukerji, Handbook Ind. 

 1901, 359 ; Cooke, FL Pres. Bomb., ii., 732. Turmeric, haldi, hallde, 

 iltitltt, halud, halja, manjal, pasupu, mannal, arishina or arshana, kahd, 

 ince, hsa-nwen, haridrd (Sanskrit = yellow-wood), and karkom (the Hebrew 

 iu which kurkum and Curcuma have been derived), (Lacaita, Appendix 

 Maw, The Genus Crocus, 1886, v.-xiii.), etc. Turmeric is regarded by 

 H m> botanists as a native of India, but the finest qualities were introduced 

 )m China or Cochin-China. 



History and Races. Ibn Baithar (1200, ii., 370), quoting a writer of the tenth 

 century, says that the Persians call this root al-hard, and the inhabitants of 

 ra name it al-kurkum or saffron. Garcia de Orta (Coll., 1563, xviii.) gives 

 chief Indian names, and says that while abundant in Cananor and Calicut, it 

 known in Persia and Arabia as obtained from India. He speaks of it as 

 , form of saffron known to the Arabs as habet. The Ain-i-Akbari gives the prices 

 the qualities of turmeric, so that it was possibly as well known in India in 1590 

 it is to-day. The plant is nowadays extensively cultivated all over India for 

 10 sake of its rhizomes. There are two main conditions : one in which a fairly 

 rhizome is used as a condiment, being one of the indispensable ingredients 

 , curries ; the other in which the rhizome is harder and much richer in colour, 

 ice employed for dyeing purposes. Certain qualities of the rhizome are also 

 rly largely prescribed in medicine. So very different are some of the so-called 

 of turmeric that it has often been urged they must be produced from 

 jtanically distinct varieties, if not species, quite independently of f. ru>/"- In 

 I >i -i in trade, for example, there are known the following : China, Madras, 

 Bengal and Java. The first mentioned is the best. Cochin turmeric 

 , globular tuber, and usually appears in market cut into slices. It is an edible 

 iber, and is possibly to some extent often t: amjiiHti/oHn or t;. imetuio-inont<in<i 

 ither than \ ii>a". But according to some writers the special qualities of the 

 rhizome are more a question of age than of specific distinctions. If left in 

 le soil for a longer period, or if dried and stored for some time before being used, 

 tubers assume the dye condition. There are, however, special dye stocks 

 lown as lok-handi-haladi, mcela-haldi, jowala-haldi and arriba-haldi. These, very 

 issibly, have been produced by the careful selection of centuries of cultivation. 

 10 vernacular names of indigenous turmeric could easily have been transferred 

 an imported plant, just as the foreign arrowroot is displacing the indigenous. 

 Cultivation.- -1. Bengal. The description of cultivation in Bengal 

 ren by Roxburgh is held by most writers to be in the main applicable 

 the greater part of India. It may, therefore, be quoted here in full. 

 The ground," he says, "must be rich, friable and so high as not to 

 )verflow during the rainy season such as the Bengalese about Calcutta call 

 i. It is often planted on land where sugar-cane grew the preceding 

 and is deemed a meliorating crop. The soil must be well ploughed 

 id cleared of weeds, etc. It is then raised in April and May, according as 

 rains begin to fall, into ridges, 9 or 10 inches high and 18 or 20 

 ad, with intervening trenches 9 or 10 inches broad. The cuttings or 

 ets, viz. small portions of the fresh root, are planted on the tops 

 >f the ridges, at about 18 inches or 2 feet asunder. One acre requires 

 ibout 900 such sets, and yields in December and January about 2,000 Ib. 

 of the fresh root." From more recent publications it may be 

 irned that in Bengal two varieties are grown, the deshi or country 

 id the Patna ; the latter is of a richer colour and gives a better outturn, 

 crop is often lifted the first year, but the produce is inferior both 

 quality and quantity to that obtained when left in the soil for a year 



445 



CURCUMA 

 LONOA 



Huldi 



D.E.P., 

 ii., 659-60. 

 Turmeric. 



Two Forms : 

 (a) Condiment. 

 (6) Dye. 



Grades in 

 Trade. 



Cochin. 



Qualities 

 of Dye. 



Ancient 

 Cultivation. 



Bengal. 



Soil. 



Planting. 



Two Forms 

 Grown. 



TwelT* to 

 Twenty-one 

 Months' Crop. 



