Ginger is extensively diffused throughout the Indian isles, it being especially indigenous to the East, and of pretty general use among the natives, who neglect the finer spices. The great and smaller varieties are cultivated, and the sub-varieties distinguished by their brown or white colors. There is no production which has a greater diversity of names. This diversity proves, as usual, the wide diffusion of the plant in its wild state. The ginger of the Indian Archipelago is however inferior in quality to that of Malabar or Bengal. In the cultivation of ginger great improvement may be adopted and expense saved. The garden plough and small harrow should be used.
The present mode of preparing the land for this crop in the West Indies, is by first carefully hoeing off all bush and weeds from the piece you intend to plant; the workmen are then placed in a line, and dig forward the land to the full depth of the hoe, cutting the furrow not more than from five to six inches thick. The land is then allowed to pulverise for a short time; you then prepare it for receiving the plants by opening drills with the hoe, from ten to twelve inches apart, and the same in depth, chopping or breaking up any clods that may be in the land. Two or three women follow and drop the plants in the drills, say from nine to ten inches apart. The plants or sets are the small knots or fingers broken off the original root, as not worth the scraping. The plants are then covered in with a portion of the earth-bank formed in drilling. It requires great care and attention in keeping them clean from weeds until they attain sufficient age. It throws out a pedicle or foot stalk in the course of the second or third week, the leaves of which are of similar shape to that of the Guinea grass.
Ginger is a delicate plant, and very liable to rot, particularly if planted in too rich a soil, or where it may be subject to heavy rains. The general average of yield is from 1,500 to 2,000 lbs. per acre in plants, although I have known as much as 3,000 lbs. of ginger cured from an acre of land. The planting season generally commences in Jamaica in February and March, and the crop is got in in December and January, when the stalks begin to wither. The ginger is taken from the ground by means of the hoe, each laborer filling a good-sized basket, at the same time breaking off the small knots or knobs for future planting.
A good scraper of ginger will give you from 30 to 40 lbs. of ginger per day. It is then laid on barbacues (generally made of boards) to dry. It takes from six to ten days to be properly cured. The average yield in weight is about one-third of what is scraped. When intended for preserving, the roots must be taken up at the end of three or four months, while the fibres are tender and full of sap.
The ginger grown in the West Indies is considered superior in quality to that of the East, doubtless because more care is paid to the culture and drying of the root, but it is of less importance to commerce. The quantities imported from these two quarters is however becoming more equal, and Africa is coming into the field as a producer, 1,545 casks and packages having arrived from the western coast in 1846. The annual average export of ginger from Barbados between the years 1740 and 1788, was 4,667 bags; between 1784 and 1786, 6,320 bags; in 1788, 5,562 cwt. were shipped; in 1792, 3,046 bags and barrels. In 1738, so widely was the culture of this root diffused in Jamaica, that 20,933 bags, of one cwt. each, and 8,864 lbs. in casks were shipped. The exports may now be taken on an average at 4,000 cwt.; but, like all the other staple products of the island, this has fallen off one-half since the emancipation of the negro population.
In the three years which preceded the abolition of slavery, 5,719,000 lbs. of ginger were shipped from Jamaica. In the three years ending with 1848, the quantity shipped had decreased 2,612,186 lbs., as will be seen by the following returns:—
| GINGER SHIPPED. | |||
| lbs | lbs. | ||
| 1830 | 1,748,800 | 1846 | 1,462,000 |
| 1831 | 1,614,640 | 1847 | 1,324,480 |
| 1832 | 2,355,560 | 1848 | 320,340 |
| 5,719,000 | 3,106,820 | ||
In 1843 there were shipped from Jamaica 3,719 casks and bags; in 1844, 3,692 casks and 1730 bags; in 1845, 3,506 casks, valued at £4 10s. each, and 1,129 bags, valued at £2 each, equal in all to £18,037. From the island of Hayti 8,769 lbs. of ginger were exported in 1835, and 15,509 lbs. in 1836. 39 packages of ginger were shipped from Barbados in 1851.
In Maranham and one or two other provinces of Brazil, ginger of an excellent quality is grown, and a good deal is exported. It was very early an article of culture in South America. According to Acosta, it was brought to America by one Francisco de Mendoza, from Malabar, and so rapidly did its cultivation spread, that as far back as 1547, 22,053 cwt. were shipped to Europe. Southey, in his "History of Brazil" (vol. i., p. 320), says, "Ginger had been brought from the island of St. Thomas, and throve so well that in the year 1573, 4,000 arrobas of 25 lbs. each were cured; it was better than what came from India, though the art of drying it was not so well understood. Great use was made of this root in preserves, but it was prohibited, as interfering with the Indian trade in that wretched species of policy which regards immediate revenue as its main object."
Ginger was worth in the London market 25s. to 60s. the cwt. in bond; middling and fine qualities, 80s. to 160s. The duty is 5s. per cwt.