488 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Decvember i, 1881 
CARDAMOM CUTIVATION 
is rapidly extending, and with good reason, in both 
high and low country districts in Ceylon. Returns of 
close on 400 lb. per acre of a crop which sells at 
from 5s to 8s per lb., must leave a margin of profit 
sufficient to induce a general rush into this most pro- 
fitable of new products. Cardamoms are among the 
best-prized of spices in the world — far-famed as " grains 
of paradise " — and they will always continue to be 
much valued. But even if the average price fell to 2s 
per lb., the cultivation will pay well. With care and 
under favourable circumstances, it is believed a crop 
up to 600 lb. per acre can be gathered in our plant- 
ing districts in Ceylon. Hitherto the great cry has 
been for " bulbs," and high prices have been paid for 
these with considerable expense for transport, and 
trouble and uncertainty about the transplanting. But 
it is now found that propagation can be made quite 
as readily, indeed, with better results from seed, which 
are from one-fourth to one-tenth the cost. Bulbs have 
sold as high as 25 rupees per 1,000; indeed, we have 
heard of an estate in Rakwana against which, includ- 
ing carriage, the cost of a thousand bulbs run up to 
nearly ninety rupees ! Now, thanks to local enterprise 
and careful experiments, germinated seed which can be 
Bent per post anywhere in small tin- boxes are available 
at no more than three rupees per 1,000 ! Here we 
have another illustration of the success which is likely 
to attend the cultivation of new products in Ceylon 
under European skill and enterprise. The Mysore native 
who had been ' cardamom planting ' all his life smiled 
(in scorn doubtless) over his master's idea that seed 
could be got to supersede the clumsy and uncertain 
bulbs; but like so many of his countrymen he now 
feels he has learned something from "master" which 
neither he nor his fathers nor grandfathers seem to 
have known before. In one case the plants grown 
from seed have succeeded far more satisfactorily and 
rapidly than those grown from bulbs at ten times the 
expense. The plan adopted is to place the seed in 
drills in the nursery bed, the said drills being simply 
drawn with the finger or scratched with a stick. The 
young plants will soon be ready for the transplanter, 
■while their removal to the clearing need not take place 
until they are a good size and sufficiently hardy. 
In recently compiling the pamphlet " All about Carda- 
moms," we overlooked useful information given by one 
authority with special means of gaining experience, 
namely, Mr. R. H. Elliot, "the Mysore Planter," who 
has a long chapter on Cardamom-planting. It is chiefly 
based, however, on Mr. Ludlow's " Memorandum," from 
which we ourselves quoted fully, but Mr. Elliot adds 
gome results of practical experience. The following are 
the rules observed by the natives of Coorg in carda- 
mom planting: — 
1. — Select land that is damp, and, if possible, with 
a stream or two running through it. 
2. — In clearing for cardamoms, cut away the under- 
wood and fell a large tree here and there. 
3. — Burn the underwood when three parts dry, so 
that the burning may be as light as possible. 
4 — Pits to be dug a foot deep, and a foot and a 
half wide, and about three feet apart, and these to 
be carefully lilied with top soil. 
5. —In cutting the bulb, take sufficient for the spring- 
ing of three more shoots, and take great care not t» 
hack or injure the bulb in any way. 
6. — The part cut off for transplanting is not to be 
planted deep, nor are the shoots to be cut. 
7- — Should the new shoots hang down, they are to 
be tied together and a support given. 
8. — The plants to be regularly weeded. 
9. — When the plant comes into bearing, all the 
racemes should be laid out above the fallen leaves and 
riabbish. 
10. — In clearing wottee swamps (the wottee is a 
species of bamboo which grows in clumps), a clump 
of wottees to be left at intervals. 
11. — The stem of the cardamom-plant is not to be 
heaped round with fallen leaves, mould, or rubbish. 
12. — After the cardamoms have been picked, the 
racemes that have borne to be removed, and old shoots 
to be cut off. 
13. — The cardamoms to be planted early in the mon- 
soon. 
Mr. Elliot's manager has acted on the above system 
with a perfectly satisfactory result, but he adds : — 
The principal difference between this sys-tcm and 
that pursued in Coorg seems to lie in the fact that 
the underwood with us is burnt, while in the Coorg 
account no mention of burning is made. With us, 
too, some attempt is made to transplant, and fill up 
the land regularly ; while no such attempt seems to 
have been made in Coorg. Then the method of pick- 
ing seems to differ. The Coorgs seem to make a 
clean sweep at the outset, and at the same time re- 
move the racemes that have borne crop We pick 
the ripest seeds at first, and then go over the clear- 
ing a second time, when the remainder of the crop 
is removed, and the bearing racemes are then taken off. 
My manager in India, is decidedly of opinion that 
young plants are much to be preferred to removing 
bulbs from those that have been long growiug. He 
is also of opinion that, in removing a portion of the 
bulb, as much should be removed as to give three 
or four shoots ; so that, in case one should rot, 
you would have the others to fail back on . Another 
reason for doing this is that the eyes on the bulb 
lie so close together that, if you tried to remove 
ody one, it is probable that the coolies would in- 
jure several in cutting it out, and you would, there- 
fore, lose the mother-plant, and run every chance 
of losing the one removed for transplantation. 
We have as yet made no attempt at manuring the 
plants, as what little we have planted have borne 
little, and do not seem to require it. Nor have I 
ever heard of an attempt being made to manure this 
plant otherwise than with the vegetable mould, or 
top soil of the jungle. There are, besides, consider- 
able difficulties in the way of manuring, on account 
of the rugged nature of the ground in these jungles, 
and the consequent difficulty of transporting manure 
of any sort. Nor does it seem to me that a light 
seed like the cardamom can remove so much from 
the soil as to call for any other manure than the 
vegetable mould which can be so readily procured. 
According to Mi-. Ludlow (who had gained his ex- 
perience as Assistant Conservator of Forests in Mysore), 
the cardamom plant can " be grown from seed, and 
admits of transplantation, but will not last long except 
in a thoroughly congenial soil." As regards fruit-bear- 
ing, Mr. Ludlow says : — 
One rhizome will often have over twenty stems, 
and, as these die off, (and they seldom la3t longer 
than seven or eight years), fresh ones spring up to 
supply their place. The fruit is occasionally borne 
on the upper part of the stem, but this is extremely 
rare, and I may mention that in Muuzerabad I have 
never seen or heard of an inetance of this departure 
