[98 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



CHAP. 



Nurseries, alluded to as a bulb. Nursery beds are prepared in the 

 usual manner, and the seeds are placed in "drills "-which 

 are drawn with the finger or scratched with a stick. The 



Germination secds germinate slowly, and may not appear above the 

 ground until the expiration of four months. In about a year 

 the seedlings will be a foot high, with eight or ten leaves on 

 the shoot, and they may then be transplanted. When the 

 plant is propagated by division, a piece of the rhizome 

 should be carefully cut with not less than three shoots to it, 

 and attention must be paid that the plants are injured as 

 little as possible. 



slow. 



Transplant 

 ins. 



cultivation. 



Di?tances. 



The stems 

 to be kept 

 clean. 



Cultivation. — A good site having been selected in forest 

 land, all undergrowth must be cut away, as well as young 

 trees up to 8 inches in diameter. Here and there a large 

 tree should be felled, so as to open up the land to some of 

 the rays of the sun. The trash may be burnt before it is 

 quite dry, so that the burning may be as light as possible, or 

 it may be allowed to rot on the ground. Holes a foot deep, 

 and a foot and a half wide, are then to be dug at distances 

 of 6 feet ; but, in very rich soil, the holes may be 7 feet 

 apart or even more. Surface soil is filled in, and the cuttings 

 or seedlings are set in the holes, but they must not be 

 planted too deep or they will rot off. As the cultivation will 

 practically form a forest undergrowth, there will be very few 

 weeds to eradicate, and the expense of keeping the cardamom 

 plant clean will be small. One or two light weedings a year 

 arc all that are necessary. Care must be taken not to heap 

 leaves and rubbish round the stem of the plants, as the 

 flowering stalks spring from the roots and lie close to the 

 ground. At the third year the plants will be about 4 feet 

 high, and they will then yield a very small crop, but at the 

 fourth year a full crop may be expected. 



The unripe CROPS. — The fruit must not be allowed to ripen, or the 

 gathered. capsules will Split and the seeds will fall out. The proper 



