184  Collecting  and  Curing  Ginger.  {AmAp0rnr;Sarm' 
ideas,  certainly  they  do  represent  good  products,  and  are  worthy 
of  close  attention.  The  containers  or  bottles  are  purposely  large  ; 
this  is  intended  to  give  a  mobility  to  the  powders  and  opposes 
an  existing  idea  that  such  substances  should  be  compactly  bot- 
tled to  exclude  the  air. 
Philadelphia,  March  20,  1894. 
M  ' 
COLLECTING  AND  CURING  GINGER  IN  JAMAICA.1 
By  William  Fawcett. 
Director  of  Public  Gardens  and  Plantations. 
The  Collector  of  Taxes  from  Hanover  reported  that  during  the 
year  much  of  the  ginger  sold  realized  low  prices  on  account  of  the 
imperfect  way  in  which  it  had  been  cured. 
The  Collector-General  reported  that  the  average  prices  realized 
for  ginger  in  several  parishes  were  as  follows : 
Shillings. 
Kingston,   50-55* 
St.  Ann's,   50 
Trelawny,  ,   36-44 
St.  James,   52 
Hanover,   .  .  45 
Westmoreland,   .  .  60 
St.  Elizabeth,  30-48 
Manchester,   16/8-40 
*  Shillings  per  hundredweight. 
Information  was  sought  from  the  Collectors  of  Taxes  as  to  the 
reasons  for  the  varying  prices,  whether  proceeding  from  the  diffi- 
culties in  curing  or  from  some  other  cause,  and  also  as  to  the 
method  of  curing  in  different  parishes. 
It  appears  from  answers  with  which  I  was  favored,  quoted  below, 
that  the  variation  in  prices  in  the  different  parishes  arise  generally 
from  causes  independent  of  curing,  but  that  low  prices  anywhere 
indicate  want  of  care  in  curing,  or  that  ratoon  ginger  is  harvested. 
Further  consideration  will  be  given  to  this  subject,  and  I  hope  to 
visit  some  of  the  districts  when  the  harvest  is  being  brought  in. 
1  The  above  paper  is  taken  from  the  Bulletin  of  the  Botanical  Department, 
Jamaica.  By  a  series  of  letters  the  information  is  obtained  direct  from  the 
source  of  supply. 
