416 SPICES 



CHAP. 



f record as to whether the cultivation has been carried on 

 later to any extent. 



Barbados. Mr. J. E. Bo veil gives some account of 



cultivation experiments here in 1898 (Barbados Botanical 



Station, Occasional Bulletin, No 9, 1898). The object 



of these experiments was to find a payable substitute 



for sugar in fields affected by a cane-disease, while the 



fields were recovering from the presence of the fungus. 



The first experiment was made with blue ginger, which 



gave a return of 19,420 Ibs. an acre. Next year both 



blue and yellow were tried, with the result that the 



blue gave a crop of 18,150 Ibs. to the acre, the yellow 



/1 7,22 6 Ibs. When the ginger had been scraped and 



Cdried it weighed, of blue 3,076 Ibs., of yellow 3,794 Ibs. 



For valuation four samples were sent to Messrs. 



Wilkinson and Gaviller, London, who reported on them 



as follows : 



Sample 1. Whole rhizomes of yellow valued 75s. per cwt. 



2. blue 73s. to 74s. 



3. Pieces of yellow 70s. to 71s. 



4. blue 68s. to 70s. 



The average value was 70s. per cwt. The firm 

 recommended that ginger of these qualities should 1 not 

 be sorted into grades, but should be sold without 

 sorting, as this ginger would only do for grinding. 

 Only very carefully selected ginger of the finest quality 

 should be separated out as a grade. 



About this time a consignment of nine barrels of 

 Barbados ginger was sold at auction in London (June 

 15, 1898). The parcels were not of first quality, but 

 fetched 73s. 6d. per cwt. 



The reporters said : " The parcels showed a large 

 proportion of nearly green ginger, which of course 

 lessens the value, as dry hard ginger of good strength 

 will always command a market, whereas on a slack 

 market undesirable stuff, viz. green or dirty, is very 

 difficult of sale." The value of Jamaica ginger of 

 middling quality was then 80s. to 85s. per cwt. 



The gentleman who shipped this ginger wrote that 



