JAMAICA. 



BULLETIN 



OF THE 



BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT c 



New Series.] JUNE, 1894. 



REPORT ON GINGER CROPS. 



5th April, 1894. 



Sir, 



In my Annual Report for 1892-93 attention was called to the dif- 

 ference in prices realised for ginger in different parishes. 



His Excellency the Governor requested me to make further en- 

 quiries, especially in some of the districts where ginger is grown, and I 

 have the honour now to submit the following statement : 



The quality of commercial ginger upon which the price depends, is 

 due chiefly to soil, but also to curing, to the variety, white or blue and 

 to whether it has been freshly planted a few months before or has been 

 " ratooning" for one or more years. 



The soil, which produces the very highest quality realising perhaps 

 £10 per cwt. in the London market is the very deep black soil of the 

 virgin forest. To grow ginger under this condition involves the 

 destruction of large areas of forest. 



Magnificent trees, six feet in diameter, may be seen in some districts 

 lying rotting on the ground, while the ginger cultivators have gone 

 further to the centre of the Island, abandoning the woodlands already 

 cut down. The plan adopted in cleaning the forest is, for a cultivator 

 to invite 10 or 12 of his friends to a "cutting match", he provides food 

 and drink and the laborious work of felling trees is carried on merrily 

 and without much expense. Afterwards fire is put, and the place is 

 burnt over. This burning is considered very important, as much so as 

 the virgin soil. Probably its importance is due principally to the de- 

 posit of potash and other mineral matters contained in the ashes, but 

 the fire will also sweeten the ground correcting sourness and moreover 

 it destroys insect pests. Some cultivators will only grow ginger in 

 freshly cleared woodland and next year they move on to a new clearing, 

 but although in this way they get very fine ginger it is at the expense 



Vol. I. 

 Part 6. 



