April 1907.] 



DYES AND TANNING SUBSTANCES. 



TURMERIC: ITS CULTIVATION AND USES. 

 Turmeric* is extensively cultivated all over India for its root-stocks, and 

 is now found more or less wild in Jamaica, especially in the western districts. It 

 is the well-known haldi universally used as a condiment with curry-stuffs and 

 also as a dye, and is one of the most profitable of crops in India. The dye-yielding 

 rhizome is harder and much richer in colour than the edible. 



CULTIVATION. 



The preparation of the soil necessary for turmeric is similar to that for 

 ginger, but lands intended for turmeric need not be worked so fine. The usual 

 planting time in India is about the 20bh of May, The plants spring up in about 

 a fortnight. One or two weedings are necessary, and care must be taken that the 

 fields are not inundated. After about a year and nine months turmeric is lifted. 

 When it is raised the first year, as is the practice in some places, the produce is 

 less in quantity and inferior in quality. 



PREPARATION OF THE ROOT-STOCK. 



Various systems are apparently practised for preparing the rhizome for 

 the market. Of Bengal it has been said : After the rhizomes have been dug out of 

 the ground, they are freed from the fibrous roots and cleaned. They are then put 

 in earthen pots, the mouths of which are to be carefully closed with earthen covers 

 and cowdung. These pots are then very carefully heated. The turmeric is made 

 to boil in its own juice, a'process which gets rid of the raw smell of turmeric. It 

 is then dried in the sun, the drying taking nearly a week, during the time the 

 turmeric requires to be covered in the night to protect it from dew. In some places 

 turmeric is boiled in water in which a little cow-dung is mixed." 



Of the North- West provinces, Sir E. C. Buck says:— "When dug up the 

 roots are boiled and dried in the sun ; in this form they are sold in the 

 Indian bazaars. When the dye is to be used the roots are again boiled and 

 powdered while wet. A decoction is then made of this paste in water, in which 

 the cloth is well steeped, being subsequently dried in the shade- In the Kumaon 

 district the roots are soaked in lime-juice and borax before being powdered instead 

 of being boiled." Of the Punjab, Mr. Baden Powell says the tubers are taken up 

 in November and dried partly by the action of fire and partly by exposure to the 

 sun. Of Coimbatore it is reported :— " The roots are carefully sized and separately 

 boiled in a mixture of cow-dung and water, dried and sent to market." 



CHARACTER AND VALUE IN COMMERCE. 



There are two sorts of turmeric seen in commerce — the round and the long, 

 but both are the produce of the same plant ; the central rhizomes or rootstocks 

 constituting the round, and the lateral or secondary rhizomes (tubers) the long ; the 

 latter are the more abundant. The former are roundish or somewhat ovate, usually 

 from about one inch and a half to two inches in length, and one inch in diametei^ 

 pointed at one end, and marked externally with annular ridges. They are often 

 found cut into halves. The latter are somewhat cylindrical, more or less curved 

 pointed at the two extremities, frequently having on their sides one or more short 

 knobs or shoots, about the thickness of the little finger, two or three inches long, 

 and marked externally with annular ridges. Both sorts are yellowish externally, 



* Curcuma longa> Linn. Information from Dictionary of Economic Products of India ; and 

 Bentlcy and Trimcn's Medicinal Plants, 



