BOMBAY SUPl'n 



Cultivation 



TMi. 



U. Prov. 



TU4. 



from Ortob.T to March. "The average yield is 40 to 60 manadt per 

 " [C'/. Sen, Kept. Agri. Slat !*-'. \\ ; Banerje), Agn. 



1893, 103 ; Roy, Crop* of Bengal, 1906. 157 I 



Province*. Ginger is extensively grown in all hotter valleys 

 in K imuion. A piece of ground not liable to be flooded is selected 

 protected from .'xcessive rainfall by trenching round the upper aid*. Th 

 soil is well hoed and manured and the ginger planted in furrows in April. 

 T'ne whole field is then covered with leafy branches kept in phv 

 bamboo or wooden poles. The rhizomes are gath 



Panjab. As in the United Province*, gii vation is carried on Panjab. 



chictlv in the lower hot valleys of the Himalaya. The rhizome* selected 

 for planting are preserved in heaps covered with cow-dung. The land it 

 ploughed at the end of June or beginning of July. nto beds, and 



saturate.! with water. Leaves are applied as in Kumaon. but a layer of 

 manure is placed over the leaves in additi. r the rains cease, 



artificial irrigation is necessary from October to January. In January 

 the rhizomes are dug out and removed to another place for a month, after 

 which they are exposed to the sun for a day, and are then tit for use. A 

 bigha is stated to require 8 maunds of ginger to plant it, and yields 32 

 maunds in a good crop. 



Bombay. According to the Setuon and Crop Report, there were 596 Bombaj. 

 acres under ginger in 1905-6, chiefly in Thana, Surat, Satara and 

 Kaira. Mollison (Textbook Ind. Agri.. iii.. 1*2-6) has recently described 

 fully the methods of cultivation. " It grows to great perfection on the 

 deep, alluvial, sandy loams (gorddu) of Kaira and Baroda. The garden 

 land of Surat, in which the crop is important, is somewhat heavier, but of 

 the same general character and consistence. In the Thana . here 



the rainfall is heavy, the crop is only grown in the strip of deep, sandy soil 

 which fringes the coast in the Mahim and Bassein TAlukas." 



" In Thana, ginger is rotated with betel vines, plantains, and sugar- 

 cane. In Northern Gujarat it is rotated with a number of other ga 

 crops, such as sugar-cane, swans, turmeric, onions, garlic, chillies, hnnjalt, 

 cabbages, methi, etc. Most of these crops are found in different patches 

 in the same garden in a single year." 



" Ginger in Thana is grown alone. In Northern Gujarat, a thick 

 sprinkling of guvdr is sown with the crop. Yams are planted at the corners 

 of the beds and along the bdndhs which separate the beds, or, instead 

 of yams, turmeric may be so grown." Mollison then describes in detail 

 the methods pursued in Kaira, for which the reader is referred to the 

 original. Planting the sets takes place in May or early in June before the 

 monsoon breaks, and Mollison estimates that about 77,000 sets are reqi; 

 per acre, varying in weight from about 1,200 Ib. to 2,000 Ib. The crop is 

 ready for harvest by November or December. " Under favourable con- 

 ditions, an acre may yield 12,000 Ib. of dry cleaned rhizomes. The sun- Thia. 

 dried partially cleaned rhizomes are sold by the cultivators to dealers at 

 40 to 50 Ib. per rupee in ordinary seasons. Selected pieces of rhizomes 

 after storage for several months are worth as sets for replanting about 

 25 Ib. per rupee. A crop test which was taken in the Surat d jood 



garden-land in 1895-6 gave for a mixed crop of ginger and turmeric the 

 following outturn : ginger, 8,337 b. pc; *,564 Ib. per 



acre." Mollison estimates the cost of cultivation in Surat at Rs. 11 

 acre. In the Pharmacographia Indica mention is made of many qualities 



1141 



