332 SPICES 



CHAP. 



least a year later, so that it is about three and a half to 

 four years before a full crop is obtained. The process 

 of weeding is continued annually as long as the plants 

 bear, or as long as they require weeding. As in the 

 first instance, according to White, the weeds are piled 

 up in heaps to rot and are not burnt. 



Owen in his notes on Cardamom cultivation says that 



Weeding of a cardamom clearing except the first clearing is a 

 matter of small moment. When the plants are young, the ground 

 should be gone over whether the ground is naturally weedy or 

 not, every two or three months. In most cases, intervals of two 

 months are not too long, a few weedy corners being cleaned 

 oftener. In about two years' time, when the plants cover the 

 ground, no weeding at all is necessary or advisable, for the fewer 

 coolies that are allowed among the fruiting plants the better for 

 the proprietor. It is unadvisable to give the weeding of a carda- 

 mom clearing out in contract at any time ; a few coolies sent when 

 other works do not press are sufficient. The important part 

 is the weeding of ravines ; these should be drained and planted 

 if possible, but in any case must be kept thoroughly clean. If 

 planted with grass, or allowed to remain full of jungle stuff, they 

 harbour vermin, which are most destructive to the crop. 



Mixed weedy herbage on the edge or in corners of an 

 estate of any kind is most objectionable. Such places 

 in the tropics are the breeding-grounds of grasshoppers, 

 crickets, beetles, and slugs, which from such points attack 

 the crops by day and night. It is better to plant waste 

 spots where the cardamoms will not for some reason grow 

 with fruit trees, bananas, betel-nut palms or some such 

 plants. The amount of vermin that these neglected weed 

 patches will harbour is often astonishing. 



When the plants begin to flower it is advisable to 

 clear off all dead and dying stems. In this class of 

 Zingiberaceous plants, the leafy stems soon attain their 

 maximum growth, and after a period often of some 

 months the leaves begin to turn yellow, the stalks 

 brown, and finally the whole stem dies and becomes 

 dry, disjointing itself at last where it joins the rhizome. 

 Its work is finished when the leaves become yellow 

 and droop, and it may then be cut off to avoid encum- 



