GINGER. 
149 
size and weight. At last^ in January or February, 
the withered stalks show that it is time to gather 
in the crop. 
6. It is in the very deep black soil of the forest 
that the best ginger can be raised. For this 
reason the ginger planter often gives up the land 
after he has raised a crop, and clears another 
piece of forest ground on which to start fresh 
plants. Although very good ginger may be 
grown in this way, we lose many fine and useful 
forest trees that have taken a great number of 
years to grow. 
7. Ginger can be grown, in the same places, 
year after year by leaving pieces of the root-stock 
in the ground to ratoon. But the ginger from 
ratoons is not so good as ^^plant-ginger", and it 
gets poorer year by year. So at last the ratoons 
are given up, and something else is planted in 
their place, until, after a few years, the land is 
ready to bear a ginger crop again. 
I 
GINGER— II. 
1. Let us see how the ginger is made ready for 
market. The races or hands (as the odd-shaped 
root-stocks are called), having been dug up, are 
washed free from soil, and cleared from their 
thread-like roots. 
