332 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
least a year later, so that it is about three and a half to 
four years before a full crop is obtained. The process 
of weeding is continued annually as long as the plants 
bear, or as long as they require weeding. As in the 
first instance, according to White, the weeds are piled 
up in heaps to rot and are not burnt. 
Owen in his notes on Cardamom cultivation says that 
Weeding of a cardamom clearing except the first clearing is a 
matter of small moment. When the plants are young, the ground 
should be gone over whether the ground is naturally weedy or 
not, every two or three months. In most cases, intervals of two 
months are not too long, a few weedy corners being cleaned 
oftener. In about two years’ time, when the plants cover the 
ground, no weeding at all is necessary or advisable, for the fewer 
coolies that are allowed among the fruiting plants the better for 
the proprietor. It is unadvisable to give the weeding of a carda- 
mom clearing out in contract at any time ; a few coolies sent when 
other works do not press are sufficient. The important part 
is the weeding of ravines ; these should be drained and planted 
if possible, but in any case must be kept thoroughly clean. If 
planted with grass, or allowed to remain full of jungle stuff, they 
harbour vermin, which are most destructive to the crop. 
Mixed weedy herbage on the edge or in corners of an 
estate of any kind is most objectionable. Such places 
in the tropics are the breeding-grounds of grasshoppers, 
crickets, beetles, and slugs, which from such points attack 
the crops by day and night. It is better to plant waste 
spots where the cardamoms will not for some reason grow 
with fruit trees, bananas, betel-nut palms or some such 
plants. The amount of vermin that these neglected weed 
patches will harbour is often astonishing. 
When the plants begin to flower it is advisable to 
clear off all dead and dying stems. In this class of 
Zingiberaceous plants, the leafy stems soon attain their 
maximum growth, and after a period often of some 
months the leaves begin to turn yellow, the stalks 
brown, and finally the whole stem dies and becomes 
dry, disjointing itself at last where it joins the rhizome. 
Its work is finished when the leaves become yellow 
and droop, and it may then be cut off to avoid encum- 
