Edible Products. 



80 



I employed to help me very intelligently and readily picked up all about cleaning, 

 oiling, starting and stopping the engine. I have four of them now with me well 

 trained. Two of the goldsmith caste volunteered to learn the work. They were 

 given an opportunity to do so, and have learned all about the engine and the 

 mill. So, at the end of the season, I used to leave the machinery entirely in 

 their charge. 



Sometime ago when you mentioned in the Madras Mail that I made 400 

 maunds of jaggery per acre, and that I sold it last year at Rs. 2-8-0 a maund, Mr. 

 B. K. Garudachar. of Bangalore, contradicted the statement and said tnat it was 

 not possible to get 400 maunds of jaggery per acre on large plots of 30 or 40 acres, 

 and that if I at all had sold my jaggery at Rs. 2-8-0 it must have been to some of 

 my tenants during a festival. Now I have milled a plot of 25 acres, and on this 

 I have managed to make very nearly 400 maunds, although the canes had dried 

 up to some extent and had also deteriorated in sugar value by being over-ripe. 

 This yield under these adverse conditions is mainly due to the higher extraction 

 your mill gave over the ordinary cattle mill. 



I have a quarter acre plot for experimental purposes, and on this plot and 

 with the cattle mill I used to make 100 maunds when the canes were quite ripe. 

 This year on the same plot I have got 120 maunds, using your power mill, although 

 the canes were over-ripe. 



As regards the price at which I sold my jaggery last year I wish to tell you 

 that Mr. B. K. Garudachar himself bought two-thirds of my crop at Rs. 2 per 

 maund, and after incurring the expense of carting from my estate to Bangalore, 

 warehousing and other expenses, and loss in weight due to keeping for two months, 

 made a good profit, and moreover asked me to sell the remaining third also to him. 

 But as I had sold the jaggery at Rs. 2-8-0 to a merchant prior to his request I could 

 •not oblige him. 



In conclusion I may mention that the loss I have sustained by the late 

 arrival of the mill has been more than compensated by the satisfactory way in 

 which the mill worked and the higher extraction it gave, the considerable time 

 and labour it saved, not to speak of the advantage I derived by being able thereby 

 to convert within a short time a large extent of cane into jaggery, and place the 

 same within the time stipulated in the hands of the merchants with whom I had 

 contracted to supply a large quantity. 



-Madras Mail. N. K. IYENGAR. 



THE CULTIVATION OP GINGER. 

 Here we have another article which is in universal demand, and for which 

 good prices can be obtained. Ginger grows to perfection in any suitable soil on all 

 the coastal lands of the State. There is no more difficulty in growing ginger than in 

 growing arrowroot, peanuts, castor oil, or sunflowers. There is, to be sure, a con- 

 siderable amount of light labour required to prepare the rhizomes for market, but 

 the preparation is so easy that it can be done by girls and boys. 



Two essential requirements for the growth of the plant are— sunshine and 

 moisture. These conditions are found in Eastern Queensland. The process of plant- 

 ing differs little from potato-planting. " Fingers," containing an eye or embryo, are 

 planted in holes or trenches a few inches beneath the surface, about one foot apart. 

 All that is needed is to keep the ground clean, and the young plants well watered, 

 the soil being, of course, well drained, because stagnant water gives rise to black rot, 

 and in this condition the root fills with water, swells, has a bad smell, and is then 

 attacked by insects and worms. 



