JAMAICA. 



BULLETIN 



OF THE 



BOTANICAL DEPAKTMEIS^T. 



Vol. V. 



New Series.] NOVEMBER, 1898. 



GINGER IN JAMAICA.* 



By F. B. Kilmer. 



One of the essential requirements for the growth of this plant is 

 sunshine. 



Another requisite for growth — moisture — is also here in plenty. 

 In some portions, 281 inches, or 23 feet, is recorded as an annual down- 

 pour. In the ginger districts," 88 inches, or over 7 feet, has been the 

 mean annual rainfall for the last twenty years. While ginger grows 

 at suitable elevations all over the island, it is mainly produced in the 

 central western portion, along the borders of the Parishes of Westmore- 

 land, St. Elizabeth, Manchester, Clarendon, Trelawny and St. James. 

 The underlying soil of this district consists of white and yellow lime- 

 stone, with trappean formation ; this is covered in some of the nooks or 

 valleys with a pulverent mould or loam deposit several feet in depth. 

 The plant grows luxuriantly in such soil, but apparently will not thrive 

 in marshy soil, nor where there is present more than 10 to 20 per cent, 

 of clay or 30 per cent, of sand. The government returns for the whole 

 island give only about 250 acres of land devoted to ginger. This 

 amount of acreage would not yield the crop harvested. But the real 

 cultivation is not in acres, many cultivators having beds varying from 

 6 feet square up to the size of a building lot. A few cultivate from 

 one to six acres. Large plots are very rare. For the most part, it is 

 put in the ground in any convenient spot, alongside pineapples, yams, 

 cocoa, cassava or other plants, often in the midst of a dense growth of 

 bush or weeds. 



In the statistics of this island this article does not figure in pounds, 

 shillings and pence as largely as do some of its other products. Econo- 

 mically speaking, however, ginger is one of its most important articles 



* Extracts from an article in the American Journal of Pharmacy , entitled " In 

 the Land of Ginger— Jamaica." 



