68 o 
Stippkment to the “ Tropical Agnculturist.' 
[Mcarh 2, 1891 
intended, we had the Normal School also in con- 
nection with this useful Institution. 
I find that the late Director of Public Instruction 
has expressed his regret at the closing of the 
Normal School in several of his reports. Is it too 
late now to have a class for training teachers also 
at the School of Agriculture ? Now that there is 
to be a Technical School, it would be advisable to 
have a class for training teachers in Agriculture 
and Technology. 
There is little hope of teaching Scientific Agri- 
culture to the old goiyas. We must begin with 
school boys. Every schoolmaster ought to have 
an experimental garden in connection with his 
school. If he is a trained agriculturist, he will 
know what to grow and how to grow. A taste 
for gardening and a desire for competition could 
be created in the minds of the boys by holding 
annual exhibitions and awarding prizes. For all 
these we ought to have teachers of the right 
stamp. They could only be got by proper 
training. 
^ 
THE CULTIVATION OP GINGER. 
(Zinffiber Officinale.) 
By W. a. i)E Silva. 
The ginger plant thrives in warm and temperate 
climates. It is herbaceous in its nature, but the 
plant is not an annual, though it is treated as such 
in cultiration. 
The ginger iilant was known from times far 
remote, and ginger was an article of import 
among the Greeks and Romans. It is supposed 
by some that the original home of ginger is the 
country bordering the Red Sea, as it was from the 
Red Sea ports that the spice was exported. But 
on the other hand there is every reason to believe 
as evidenced by historical records, that India was 
the original home of the plant. The generic 
name Zingiber is derived from the Sanscrit. At 
the present day the ginger plant is cultivated 
to a large extent in India, Cochin, Africa, and 
Jamaica. 
The plant is said to attain to the height of 
from three to four feet, but in Ceylon we do not 
see it grow to more than half that height. 
The cultivation of ginger is carried on in the 
villages of Ceylon to a small extent as a garden 
crop. The villages in the vicinity of Cotta pro- 
duces a large quantity of ginger rhizomes. 
As this plant thrives well only on very good 
soils and produces well under good treatment, the 
cultivation is confined to small patches on which 
the cultivators can bestow the care and attention 
the plants requirefor theirsuccessfiilgrowth. How- 
ever, it is a very paying crop, and on that account 
tlie extension of its cultivation is very desirable. 
In cultivating ginger in Ceylon, the land is 
well tilled and covered with leaf refuse which 
is afterwards burnt. After the process- of burn- 
ing, all pieces of unl)urnt twigs and bits of root 
are carefully removed, and the ashes are well 
mixed with the soil. Then beds arc made 3 feet 
in breadth, and sometimes double that size, from 
12 to 21 foot in length as the case may be. 
After these beds are carefully levelled, the sots 
of ginger are jdantcd at distances of nine by 
twelve inches. The sets are selected from thin 
rhizomes which are cut into small pieces, leaving 
one or more buds which spring up a few days 
after they are planted. 
The planting done, the beds are covered with 
old straw or leaf refuse ; the former is preferred, 
as it could be evenly sju-ead without much diffi- 
culty. This process is of great aid to the grow- 
ing ginger, as by it a check is given to the growth 
of weeds which, if permitted to establish them- 
selves at this stage of cultivation, are sufficient 
to spoil the whole crop. Besides, it helps to 
retain a certain amount of moisture by prevent- 
ing excessive evaporation in dry weather, and in 
due time when the ]dants are most in need of 
manure, the straw or leaf refuse supplies this 
want after a process of decay. 
Ginger is generally planted by the end of 
March and April, and the croji is obtained in ten 
to eleven months. The soil is then dug up and the 
rhizomes, commonly called roots, are gathered. 
A large quantity of ginger sets is necessary for 
planting purposes, an acre of land requiring from 
six to ten hundredweights. The results are 
generally very encouraging, as the yield is from 
ten to twelve fold yielding eighty to hundred 
cwts. per acre. Ginger is seldom, if ever, dried by 
the cultivators of Ceylon. The produce being so 
limited, it is all consumed in a raw state. The 
price of a iiound of ginger varies from two to 
eight cents according to the supply in the 
market. 
Ginger is used in all countries as a condiment 
and a medicine xjossessing carminative properties. 
Indian and Sinhalese medical Avorks abound in 
the uses and the jpraises of this medicine, and it 
is knoAvn as Maha-Awushadha, or the great 
medicine. 
As a commercial product it is known in a dried 
state ; and in chemists’ shops is sold in the form 
of a j)owder, — the dried root being known as race 
(rais) ginger. There are two kinds of dried ginger, 
one of a brownish colour and the other white ; 
the white ginger is produced by bleaching the 
rhizomes in chlori ! 5 of lime. 
The cultwation of this product in an extensive 
scale would no doubt prove to be a profitable 
one in some parts of the Island where the soil is 
rich and the rainfall favourable. It may per- 
haps be also cultivated rvitli success under irri- 
gation, and its cultivation is to be recommended 
in the neglected soils of the tank districts. 
The curing of ginger for market purposes is very 
little understood here. When merely boiled and 
dried in the sun, the rhizomes shrivel up, and 
turn black. The following process is said to 
yield very good marketable ginger, and is the 
process adopted in Cochin and other countries 
where a large export trade exists. 
“The rhizomes of ginger when dug out are 
thoroughly well scrubbed in water Avith a hard 
brush until every particle of earth is removed and 
then steeped for anight in a pretty strong solution 
of limeAvater (one ounce of unslacked lime to the 
gallon), then well rinsed in clean water and 
dried sloAvly.” 

BUILDING MATERIALS. 
Section II. Timbeb. 
By a P’actoby Apphentice. 
There are nearly 90 timber trees in Ceylon, 
but the folloAving are the chief and the most 
