XIV 
TURMERIC 
429 
the land fit for planting. The rhizomes should be set 
9 in. apart, and the beds should be 25 or 30 ft. apart. 
About 2 maunds of turmeric roots are required for 
planting an acre. When the plants have come up, and 
before the approach of the rainy season, ridging or 
earthing should be done to exclude the water from the 
immediate surroundings of the plant. Water should 
be drained off if necessary. Manuring is hardly ever 
done in Bengal, but 1 maund of ashes and 3 maunds 
of oil-cake per acre would benefit the trees as well as 
the turmeric. It should be given soon after planting 
and before earthing up. Two hand-weedings or hoeings 
are necessary, one in July and one in September. The 
roots should be lifted up after the leaves have completely, 
withered in December and January. Some small sections 
of the rhizome should be set apart for seed. These, 
before being planted in April or May, should be kept 
under a heap of dry straw to hasten sprouting 
[Handhooh of Indian Agriculture). 
Manuring. — Turmeric, unless in especially good 
ground, however, requires manure of some sort. Farm- 
yard manure is perhaps the best if procurable, and is 
what is used by the Chinaman in the Malay Peninsula. 
In Coimbatore, municipal sweepings and ashes are a 
favourite manure. Burnt earth and wood-ashes I have 
found very effective, especially in soils weak in potash. 
Sir E. 0. Buck [Dyes and Tans of the North-ivest 
Provinces) says : “In June the land is well manured, 
forty cart-loads being thrown into 1 acre of land. It 
is then watered twice and well ploughed.” He is 
speaking here of Cawnpore, where, from its dryness, 
irrigation is necessary. In an account of some field 
experiments with sewage made on the Bombay farms, 
J. W. Mollison, in \he, Agricultural Ledger, 1901, vol. ii. 
p. 52, shows the value of sewage in turmeric cultivation. 
A comparison was made of the crops produced after 
manuring with several different kinds of manure. These 
were watering with the effluent from septic tanks of 
night-soil, in Poona farm-yard manure, poudrette [i.e. 
