408 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
Ground rent or tax 
. $5-00 
Clearing, ploughing, and planting 
. 40-00 
Cost of plants .... 
. 50-00 
Digging and preparing 
. 15-00 
Peeling ..... 
. 45-00 
Drying ..... 
. 25-00 
Delivery at market 
■ . 10-00 
Fertiliser ..... 
. 50-00 
Superintendence .... 
. 20-00 
$200-00 
Yield of one acre, 1,500 to 2,000 lbs. at 12 cents per 
lb., $180 to $300. The expenses here seem very high. 
In Bengal (Murray’s figures) : — 
Rupees per Bigha 
{ 1,600 sq. yds.). 
Cost of plants . 
. 16 
Manure 
. 7 
Planting, etc. 
. 23 
46 
In the Punjab a bigha requires 8 maunds of rhizome to 
plant it, and yields 32 maunds in a good year. Selected 
rhizomes for planting cost 8 to 10 seers for a rupee, and 
the ordinary crop 24 to 32 seers per rupee (Baden-Powell, 
in Watt’s Dictionary). 
A correspondent in the Indian Planters Gazette, 
quoted in the Tropical Agriculturist, April 1903, p. 660, 
gives as an estimate for one bigha : — 
R. A. p. 
10 ploughs at 4 annas . . . . 3 2 0 
Manuring . . . . . . 8 0 0 
20 coolies for preparing land at 5 for the rupee . 4 0 0 
10 for planting at same price . . . 2 0 0 
Weeding, etc . 8 0 0 
Digging and sorting, 16 coolies . . . 3 0 0 
Irrigating . . . . . . 6 0 0 
Kent for one year . . . . . 2 3 0 
36 5 0 
Returns, 10 maunds green ginger at 6 rupees per 
maund . . . . . . . 60 0 0 
Profit for 1 bigha 23 11 0 
