October, 1910.] 



299 



Fibres. 



To go no farther than India itself, we 

 have several instances of men who, 

 misled by paltry results obtained from 

 carefully nursed plants in their own 

 compounds, have persuaded complacent 

 friends to waste their substances in 

 attempting the hopeless task of tree 

 cotton cultivation on a commercial 

 scale. 



The tree cotton which will succeed as 

 a field crop has still to be discovered, 

 and until it is really found and certified 

 to be a success by responsible and dis- 

 interested men, the public in general 

 will be well advised to withhold their 

 financial support from well-meant, per- 

 haps, but visionary schemes of amassing 

 rapid fortunes from tree cotton cul- 

 tivation. 



EDIBLE PRODUCTS. 



BLEACHING OP GINGER. 



(Prom the Agricultural Journal of India, 

 Vol, V., Pt. 3, July 1910.; 



During the course of my trip to 

 Southern India in 1908, I had occasion to 

 halt at two important centres of the 

 ginger trade in Travancore territory. 

 At these places there were a few large 

 and many small ginger curing houses for 

 converting green ginger into the dry 

 form locally (Poona) known as " sunth." 



There are several factories for bleach- 

 ing ginger on the western coast of 

 Malabar. The process in short consists 

 in soaking thau washing the material 

 'green ginger) in lime water, and then 

 fumigating it with sulphur vapour. 



Advantages of Curing. — The object is 

 to increase the keeping quality and also 

 to dry it without loss of shape. Green 

 ginger on exposure for a few days either 

 shrivels by drying and becomes stringy 

 and mostly useless for other domestic 

 medicinal use, or if buried in the ground 

 sprouts up after a time and requires to 

 be then properly cultivated. At the 

 same time curing facilitates transport 

 and sale. The time which ginger will 

 keep is thus increased to nearly three 

 years. 



The apparatus and articles required 

 are :— 



Green ginger. 

 Washing tanks. 

 Lime cisterns. 



Bleaching rooms with fittings. 

 Shallow trays made of wicker work. 

 Sulphur powder. 

 Coconut oil. 



Bleaching Room.— This is 12' x 12' x 12', 

 with three horizontal tiers of shelves 

 arranged at a height of 3 feet from each 

 other ; these are usually made of split 

 bamboos. The shelves support small 

 shallow baskets of 9 inch diameter 

 placed close to or upon each other. The 

 room is provided with one door and at 

 one end with a hearth. The latter is a 



simple niche in the wall of the room 

 opening from outside and situated close 

 to the floor. The niche is 2 feet high 

 and about as much wide, built in the 

 thickness of the wall, with a portion 

 projecting inside the room. The inner 

 projection holds on it an iron basket 

 which is consequently seen only in the 

 room. The basket can be heated from 

 below by igniting a fire in the niche 

 outside. The sulphur, which is placed 

 in the basket, gets heated and fumes 

 issue which fill the whole air space in 

 the room. The basket gets the direct 

 heat, and no smoke or heat escapes into 

 the room from the hearth, The ceiling 

 of the room is made of split bamboos 

 and plastered with mud and tiled, 

 making it more or less air-proof. The 

 bleaching rooms in some establishments 

 are of ten double the length given, with 

 two hearths and one door. 



Washing Tanks. — These are 0' x 6' x 6' 

 built of masonry and lined with cement 

 and hold the uecessary quantity of 

 water. 



Lime Cisterns. — These are of the same 

 dimensions as the washing tanks. One 

 or two spare cisterns are often provided 

 at each place of manufacture. 



The Operation. — Vendors of green 

 ginger come from different mofussil 

 villages which are often situated in 

 thick jungles. These people are actual 

 individual cultivators of ginger, and 

 bring their produce for sale to the places 

 of manufacture. The manufacturer pur- 

 chases large quantities of it, and after 

 bleaching it exports it to Bombay and 

 Europe. 



The green giuger on receipt is first put 

 into the washing tank in water. Two 

 or three men tread the material under 

 foot. The adhering mud is washed off 

 and becomes mixed with the water. 

 During the treading the outer skin of 

 the ginger is rubbed off. The water is 

 removed and renewed according to, 

 necessity. 



