FRUCTUS CARDA^IOMI. G45 



which the admiasion of light occasions the plant to developein abundance. 

 The cardamom plants attain 2 to 3 feet in height during the following 

 monsoon, after which the ground is again cleared of weeds, protected 

 with a fence, and left to itself for a year. About two years after the 

 first clearing the plants begin to flower, and Jive months later ripen 

 some fruits, but a full crop is not got till at least a year after. The 

 plants continue productive six or seven years. A garden, 484 square 

 yards in area, four of which may be made in an acre of forest, 

 will give on an average an annual crop of 12| lbs. of garbled 

 cardamoms.^ Ludlow, an Assistant Conserv^ator of Forests, reckons 

 that not more than 28 lbs. can be got from an acre of forest. From 

 what he says, it further appears that the plants which come up on 

 clearings of the Coorg forests are mainly seedlings, which make their 

 appearance in the same g-imsi-spontaneous manner as certain plants in 

 the clearings of a wood in Europe. He says they commence to bear in 

 about 3| years after their first appearance.^ The plan of cultivation 

 above described is that pursued in the forests of Travancore, Coorg and 

 Wynaad. 



2. On the low^er range of the Pulney Hills, near Dindigul, at an 

 elevation of about .5,000 feet above the sea, the cardamom plant is 

 cultivated in the shade. The natives burn down the underwood, and 

 clear away the small trees of the dense moist forests called sholas, 

 which are damp all the year round. The cardamoms are then sown, 

 and when a few inches high are planted out, either singly or in twos, 

 under the shade of the large trees. They take five years before they 

 bear fruit; " in October," remarks our informant,^ " I saw the plants in 

 full flower and also in fruit, — the latter not however ripe." 



8. In North Canara and Western Mysore the cardamom is cultivated 

 in the betel-nut plantations. The plants, which are raised from seed, 

 are planted betw^een the palms, from which and from plantains they 

 derive a certain amount of shade. They are said to produce fruit in 

 their third year. 



Cardamoms begin to ripen in October, and the gathering continues 

 during dry weather for two or three months. All the fruits on a scape 

 do not become ripe at the same time, yet too generally the whole scape 

 is gathered at once and dried, — to the manifest detriment of the drug. 

 This is done partly to save the fruit from being eaten by snakes, frogs 

 and squirreLs, and partly to avoid the capsules splitting, w^hich they do 

 when quite mature. In some plantations however the cardamoms are 

 gathered in a more reasonable fashion. As they are collected the fruits 

 are caiTied to the houses, laid out for a few days on mats, then stripped 

 from their scapes, and the drying completed by a gentle fire-heat. In 

 Coorg the fruit is stripped from the scape before drying, and the drying 

 is sometimes eflfected wholly by sun-heat. 



In the native states of Cochin and Travancore cardamoms are a 

 monopoly of the respective governments. The rajah of the latter state 

 requires that all the produce shall be sold to his oflEicials, who forward 



^ Report on the Admbm'raiion of Coorg Madras. We have likewise to ackoiowledge 



for the year 1872-73, Bangalore, 1873. 44. iuformation on this head from Dr. Brandis, 



- Elliot, Experiences of a Planter in the Inspector-General of Forests in India, and 



Jmf/les of Mysore, Lond. ii. (1871) 201, 209. Dr. King, Director of the Botanic Garden, 



^ Col. Beddome, Conservator of Forests, Calcutta. 



