ELEUSINE 

 CORACANA 



acres. Tin- \i-lil \ ili.< Mysore plantations would seem to be about 'JOO.OOO Hi., 

 ami i ho cultivation would appear to be mainly in Kudur dintn< t. 



Tin- ii:"ir. riven .ili.tvn (if reliance can be put on thm) would show a total 

 pi-iMlu.-ti..ii in all India, of close on 2,000,000 Ib. per annum. Hut that figure All India. 

 is i in-lit inurd pun ! v .iti-1 -imply as suggestive, and must not be seriously accepted. 

 In tli" Annual Review of Forest Administration for British India, issued by the 

 Inspector < ;. -n. -i-.il. t. turns are given of cardamom-production within Forest 

 Reserves. The volume for 1903-4 shows the value of the cardamoms exported 

 to hiivi* bi-on Rs. 3,37,000 as compared with Rs. 4,16,000 the previous year. 



TRADE. In the European markets cardamoms are spoken of under Trade, 

 le terms " Shorts," " Short-longs " and " Long-longs." The " shorts " 

 re from a quarter to nearly half an inch in length, and the " long-longs " 

 inch and over in length. The " long-longs " of modern commerce, it Qrd. 



en contended above, would seem to be the greater cardamom 

 )f early writers and the produce of the plant designated by planters 

 le " Mysore or Ceylon cardamom." They are finely ribbed, of a pale 

 )lour, and the seeds are grey or almost white, and shrivelled when dry. 

 le " shorts " are the Malabar or Wynaad cardamoms, and accepted 

 the finest grades, the ripe seeds of which are black. 



In most recent reports the statement occurs that overproduction has Price. 

 weird very seriously the price. It would appear that in many of the 

 )andoned coffee plantations of Coorg, cardamom and orange cultivation 

 been attempted, and with some degree of success. There has all over 

 cardamom area been for some years past a steady expansion of pro- 

 luction, so that no doubt there is some truth in the story of overproduc- 

 tion. Still, it cannot be exactly said that the limits have been reached 

 I the world's demand for this spice, and a fall in price is naturally the first 

 icentive to increased consumption. The EXPORTS to foreign countries 

 luring the undermentioned years have at all events shown an expansion in 

 quantity and a shrinkage in price. They were in 1899-1900, 191,120 Ib., 

 valued at Rs. 3,27,750 ; in 1902-3, 302,940 Ib., valued at Rs. 4,16,242 ; in 

 1905-6, 295,390 Ib., valued at Rs. 2,97,513 ; and in 1906-7, 202,374 Ib., 

 valued at Rs. 2,19,172. Of that traffic Bombay and Madras are the chief 

 listributing ports. The coastwise returns, moreover, show that Bombay 

 Jrew on Madras for its supplies. Of receiving countries the United Kingdom 

 sually takes the first place, and is followed by Arabia, Aden, Germany, 

 ?urkey-in-Asia, Persia and Egypt. But perhaps the most surprising 

 iture of the traffic is the fact that India IMPORTS cardamoms very largely Imports. 

 >m Ceylon. In 1903-4 these imports came to 269,132 lb M valued at 

 s. 1,98,710, and in 1905-6 to 435,407 Ib., valued at Rs. 2,58,083 as 

 mch in weight, but comparatively less in value than the corresponding 

 irts. We thus learn that India is itself by far the most important 

 3onsuming country for cardamoms in the world. 



increased 

 c 



Foreign 

 Exports. 



ELEUSINE: CORACANA, <;</rfn. FL Br. ind., vii., 294 ; 



Duthie and Fuller, Field and Garden Crops, ii., 10, pi. xxviii. ; GRAMINE^E. 



It has been established by Sir J. D. Hooker that K. i ml ten, Gaertn., is 

 tin- \vild form of which 7-,\ <-tn-n<-nnfi. is the cultivated state. There would 



refore seem no urgent necessity to discard for the present the time- 

 lonoured name by which this millet has been known to those interested in the 

 food supply of India. The wild plant is said to occur all over the low country 

 and to ascend to altitudes of from 5,000 to 8,000 feet on the Himalaya. 

 It is distributed throughout the tropical regions of the Old World, but only 

 introduced into the JSew. "As an Indian cultivated plant, however, it 



517 



D.E.P., 



iii, 237-41. 



Wild and 

 Cultivated. 



