CARDAMOMS 331 



the jungle, and letting the sun and breezes into patches 

 of forest where the plants previously appeared scanty 

 and weak. In this way I have seen considerable areas 

 in the Malay peninsula, which had been felled, covered 

 soon after with a dense forest of wild bananas to the 

 exclusion of almost everything else. 



The Coorgs, says Ludlow, have many signs by which 

 they are more or less influenced when selecting sites for 

 new gardens. Many know the good jungles by tradition 

 from their ancestors. In a doubtful jungle they will 

 fell a few trees here and there, and judge the following 

 year of its capabilities as a cardamom jungle by the 

 presence or absence of young cardamom plants near the 

 felled trees. 



In Travancore, the author of the Madras Manual 

 states that the cardamoms grow spontaneously in the 

 deep shade of the forest, and the owners of the gardens 

 come from the low country east of the Ghauts to cut 

 the brushwood and burn the creepers and otherwise 

 clear the soil for the growth of the plants, early in the 

 season, so as to be ready by the advent of the rains. 

 They return to gather the crop in October and November, 

 and a writer in the Madras Mail says that the plants 

 will only grow in certain places, and the presence of a 

 few wild plants safely indicates that the soil will suit 

 the cultivation. The ground is cleared of all under- 

 growth and the seeds are sown before the monsoon. In 

 October, when the young cardamoms spring up, it is 

 necessary to thin them out where they are too crowded, 

 and to sow the ground with seed where they are too 

 sparse (Watt's Dictionary). 



For the next two years, according to the writer in 

 the Malay Mail, and for four years, according to White, 

 nothing more is done except to put a fence around the 

 clearing, though in some places the cultivator weeds 

 over the ground in the following year. 



The plants commence flowering about two years 

 after the ground is cleared, and ripen some fruit about 

 five months later, but a full crop is not got till at 



