XIV 
TURMERIC 
433 
yellow above, sprinkled all over with black spots and 
short black streaks. The body is long and slender, and 
the legs and antennae long and delicate. The under- 
side of the upper wings and a bar across the thorax 
are sooty in colour. 
This insect does not seem particular as to what 
ginger plants it attacks, so long as the stems are not 
too thick. Stems attacked by it should be cut off and 
destroyed. It is not, however, easy to see it till it has 
thoroughly bored through the stem and practically 
killed it. 
PREPARATION OF RHIZOMES 
For local use in curry, turmeric is generally used 
fresh without any preparation except washing, and 
quantities are sold for this purpose in the native 
markets of Singapore and elsewhere in the East. 
In Bengal, it is said that after the roots are dug out 
of the ground they are freed from the fibrous roots and 
cleaned. They are then put into earthen pots, the 
mouths of which are carefully closed with earthenware 
covers and cow-dung. The pots are very gradually 
heated. The turmeric is made to boil in its own juice, 
which process gets rid of the raw smell of turmeric. 
It is then dried in the sun for a week or nearly as long, 
during which it requires to be covered in the night to 
protect it from dew. In some places it is boiled in 
water in which a little cow-dung is mixed [Report of 
the Agricultural Department, p. 55). 
Sir E. C. Buck says in the north-west provinces the 
roots are boiled and dried in the sun, and in this form 
they are the turmeric sold in the Indian bazaars. For 
making the yellow dye the roots are boiled again, and 
powdered while wet and made into a paste. In the 
Kumaon district the roots are soaked in lime-juice and 
borax before being powdered instead of being boiled. 
In the Punjab, Baden -Powell says the rhizomes are 
taken up in November, and dried partly by the heat of 
the sun and partly by fire. In Coimbatore, it is said 
2 F 
