Cardamom requires shade,

height and moisture

The cardamom plant (Elettaris Cardamom Matori) re quires elevation, moisture and shade. In Southern India and Ceylon it grows in jungles at altitudes of between 2,500 ft and 5,000 ft with an average temperature of 72 deg. Fahr. and an average yearly rainfall of 120 in. The shade provided by the

jungles is particularly important.

The soil should be rich, with a high humus content (swampy ground is suitable). Loamy soil, as used for pepper, is quite satisfactory, and cardamom is often planted as a secondary crop alongside pepper. In some areas it is grown with coffee.

The first harvest can be gathered in the fifth year. Production may continue for eight years, after which the planting has to be renewed.

The plants are propagated either by division of the rhizomes (bulbs) or by seed growth in beds and nurseries (though the seeds germinate very slowly). If rhizomes are used, the soil is thoroughly cleaned, and holes are dug 12-15 in. deep, 11 to 2 ft wide and 7 ft apart in both directions. In Ceylon, cardamom is propagated mainly by seedlings which have been in a nursery for about a year.

Smaller quantities

Harvesting takes place principally in February/March and August/ September, but smaller quantities can be obtained throughout the year, at two-monthly intervals. The capsules are gathered from the stems just before complete maturity when still somewhat green but beginning to turn yellow. If left on the stems to ripen, the capsules split and eject the seeds.

It is now the practice to cut off each fruit carefully with scissors, a portion of the pedicel being left attached to each capsule. (It was formerly the custom to pull off whole racemes of fruit, but this was waste ful because not all fruits ripen together). The yield is from 150 to 300 lb of cardamoms per acre.

The capsules are prepared for the market by drying, or curing, which can be done in two ways. The oldest, and cheapest method is to dry the fruits slowly on mats by exposure to

the sun. Care is necessary, since too rapid, or excessive, drying may cause the capsules to swell, burst and lose their seeds. Sun-drying also bleaches the capsules to some extent.

Higher price

The other method of drying is to use kilns. Kiln-dried cardamoms re tain their green colour, are less liable to split and fetch a higher price than the sun-dried spice. However, they must be thoroughly dried, otherwise they may become mouldy in course of shipment. Fresh cardamoms lose about 75 per cent, of their weight on drying, but the precise amount varies, as some types are moister than others.

In India, completion of drying is judged by weight loss, the standard loss for any particular locality having been determined by practical trials.

Commercial cardamoms contain about 10 or 11 per cent, of moisture.

In the Indian kiln, the cardamoms are dried on bamboo floors, while in the Ceylon kiln, the drying trays are timber-framed with wire mesh or hessian bottoms.

Great importance

The main objective in drying cardamoms is to prevent the capsules from splitting, and thus exposing the seeds to the atmosphere. The seeds contain the bulk of the volatile oil in the spice (averaging about 6 per cent.) but the seed-vessel contains very little. Exposed seeds lose their volatile oil fairly rapidly—as much as 30 per cent, in eight months— whereas the loss from the whole, unsplit fruits is very slight in the same period.

Apart from this, the trade attaches great importance to the external ap pearance of the capsules themselves, which may be either green or bleached. Green cardamoms are most

luited for distillation and should be irm to the touch and tightly closed.

Bleached cardamoms are a fancy ;rade used mainly in mixed spices or pickling and other culinary pur >oses.

Bleaching is sometimes carried out >y exposing the fruits to the fumes )f burning sulphur in sealed rooms; >r it may be done by stirring the ruits in an extract of the soapberry ree, which are then exposed to the un, and sprinkled occasionally with vater.

When the capsules are sufficiently hied, the pieces of attached stalk ire clipped or rubbed off, and re noved by hand—or machine— vinnowing.

The final product may need a urther air-drying before shipment.

Junlight spoils the colour of the Iried fruits and they should be stored n a dark room, in rat-proof metal >r wooden boxes.

For export, the capsules should be jacked in venesta cases, lined with in-foil, polythene or Sisalkraft, or n new jute bags with waterproof inings. Cardamom seeds should be lacked in clean, dry tinplate con ainers, or in waterproof lined /ooden cases.