ZINGIBER 



OFFICINALE 



History 



THE GINGER PLANT 



Three Kinds. 



Indian. 

 Travellers. 



Cultiva- 

 tion. 



Bengal. 



Rangpur. 



Soils. 



Seasons. 



Propagation. 



Planting. 



(Travels (ed. Yule), ii., 312) was familiar with both the fresh and preserved 

 root ; he specially mentions Coilum (the modern Quilon) in Malabar as affording 

 the best quality. This appears to have been known to the merchants of 

 the Middle Ages as "Colombino," or "Coilumin," a term that became a little 

 later " Columbine " ginger. Three names that denote countries of supply 

 are constantly mentioned namely Belledi, Colombino and Mecchino. The 

 belledi or balladi came from various districts of India, mecchino from Mecca, and 

 colombino from Quilon. The word balladi seems to be an exact equivalent of 

 deai, and to mean " country," and ultimately denoted a common or inferior 

 article. Rashiduddin speaks of the exports of " balodi " from Gujarat, and Nicolo 

 Conti, who travelled in India in the early part of the 15th century, remarks that 

 in the neighbourhood of Pacamuria and Helly, two cities of the west coast, there 

 "grows ginger, called in the language of the country, beledi, gebeli and neli." 

 Barbosa mentions ginger as exported from Calicut in the beginning of the 16th 

 century. So also Garcia de Orta, who wrote in 1563, and again Linschoten, in 

 1598, give long, interesting accounts of it. In the following century Terry (1655) 

 says that it grows " almost in every place " in the southern part of the Great 

 Mughal's territory; Mandelslo (1662) that it is found abundantly in Gujarat; 

 and lastly, Ta vernier (1676) refers to its prevalence in the kingdom of the Great 

 Mughal. From these and such-like accounts by travellers in India, it may be 

 inferred that ginger was already well known and a trade established in it even in 

 the early Middle Ages. [Cf. Paulus ^Egineta (Adams, transl.), iii., 123 ; Nicolo 

 Conti, Ind. in 15th Century (ed. Major), 6 ; Vertomannus, Travels, 1503, in Hakl. 

 Voy., iv., 577 ; Barbosa, Coasts E. Africa and Malabar (ed. Hakl. Soc.), 220-1 ; 

 Garcia de Orta, 1563, Coll., xxvi. ; also in Ball, Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad., 3rd ser., 1889- 

 91, i., 411 ; Acosta, Tract, de las Drogas, 1578, 259 ; Linschoten, Voy. E. Ind. 

 1598 (ed. Hakl. Soc.), ii., 78-80; Pyrard, Voy. E. Ind., etc. (ed. Hakl. Soc.), ii. 

 356, etc. ; Clusius, Hist. Exot. PL, 1605, 212 ; Terry, Voy. to Ind., 1655, 92 

 Boym, Fl. Sin., 1656, v. ; Ligon, Hist. Barbados, 1657, 79 ; Piso, Mant. Arom. 

 in Ind. Utri. re Nat. et Med., 1658, 189-91 ; Mandelslo, Travels, 1662, in Olearius 

 Hist. Muscovy, etc., 85 ; Tavernier, Trav. in Ind. (ed. Ball), 1676, ii., 13 ; Milburn 

 Or. Comm., 1813, ii., 209.] 



CULTIVATION. The plant is cultivated all over the warmer and 

 moister parts of India, up to an elevation of 4,000 to 5,000 feet in the 

 Himalaya. The cultivation is one on which much care and labour are 

 bestowed. The soil must be rich, but neither too heavy nor too light, and 

 the amount of moisture must be carefully regulated. Manure is freely 

 used and weeding carefully and frequently carried out (Nicholls, Textbook 

 Trop. Agri., 1892, 194-6). 



Bengal. Ginger is said to be largely grown in many parts of the 

 province, but no statistics of area are available. Buchanan-Hamilton 

 (Stat. Ace. Dinaj., 186) gives many interesting particulars as to methods 

 of cultivation, yield, etc. In Rangpur it might be said that ginger and 

 tobacco, taken together, constitute the second most important crop, jute 

 being first and rice third. According to Roy. a fine sandy loam is most 

 suitable, and the crop follows a Jcachu (Colocasia antiquorum, p. 398) or 

 a pulse crop. The land is prepared by repeated ploughings from the 

 15th February to the 15th April, then levelled and water-channels dug 

 along and across the fields. " Well-rotted cow-dung at the rate of 100 

 mauuds per acre is applied at the time of the first ploughing. In 

 August-September the plants are top-dressed with 6 maunds of 

 mustard-cake and 6 maunds of castor-cake per acre." " The rhizomes 

 preserved from the previous year's crop, cut into pieces about 3 inches 

 long, are planted out at the rate of 12 maunds per acre. They are 

 planted in parallel furrows drawn 15 inches apart and about 8 inches 

 apart in the furrow, at right angles to the subsidiary water-channels." 

 The field is frequently hoed and weeded and irrigated twice a month 

 during the cold season if there be no rain. The rhizomes are dug up 



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