XIV 



TURMERIC 429 



the land fit for planting. The rhizomes should be set 

 9 in. apart, and the beds should be 25 or 30 ffc. apart. 

 About 2 maunds of turmeric roots are required for 

 planting an acre. When the plants have come up, and 

 before the approach of the rainy season, ridging or 

 earthing should be done to exclude the water from the 

 immediate surroundings of the plant. Water should 

 be drained off if necessary. Manuring is hardly ever 

 done in Bengal, but 1 maund of ashes and 3 maunds 

 of oil-cake per acre would benefit the trees as well as 

 the turmeric. It should be given soon after planting 

 and before earthing up. Two hand-weedings or hoeings 

 are necessary, one in July and one in September. The 

 roots should be lifted up after the leaves have completely 

 withered in December and January. Some small sections 

 of the rhizome should be set apart for seed. These, 

 before being planted in April or May, should be kept 

 under a heap of dry straw to hasten sprouting 

 (Handbook of Indian Agriculture). 



Manuring. Turmeric, unless in especially good 

 ground, however, requires manure of some sort. Farm- 

 yard manure is perhaps the best if procurable, and is 

 what is used by the Chinaman in the Malay Peninsula. 

 In Coimbatore, municipal sweepings and ashes are a 

 favourite manure. Burnt earth and wood-ashes I have 

 found very effective, especially in soils weak in potash. 

 Sir E. 0. Buck (Dyes and Tans of the North-west 

 Provinces) says : " In June the land is well manured, 

 forty cart-loads being thrown into 1 acre of land. It 

 is then watered twice and well ploughed." He is 

 speaking here of Cawnpore, where, from its dryness, 

 irrigation is necessary. In an account of some field 

 experiments with sewage made on the Bombay farms, 

 J. W. Mollison, in the Agricultural Ledger, 1901, vol. ii. 

 p. 52, shows the value of sewage in turmeric cultivation. 

 A comparison was made of the crops produced after 

 manuring with several different kinds of manure. These 

 were watering with the effluent from septic tanks of 

 night-soil, in Poona farm-yard manure, poudrette (i.e. 



