CHAPTER XI

GINGER

Ginger black or ginger white Will furnish warmth in coldest night. Without ginger how many would miss A ginger cookie for little Sis.

GINGER (_officinale_ (_Roscoe_) _amomum zingiber, national order zingiberaceoe Linn., monandria monogynia_).

French, _Gingembre_; German, _Ingwer_; Latin, _Zingiber_; Italian, _Zenzevero_; Spanish, _Gengibre_; Portuguese, _Gengiuare_.

As a rule, spices grow above ground, but ginger is an exception, it being the roots or rhizomes of Zingiber. The root is herbaceous and creeping, tuberous, and of a somewhat flattened roundish form, marked with rings.

It is difficult to fix the original habits of the ginger plant, and it appears to be an unsettled question as to its native country, whether it be Asia or Brazil, but in its wild state it would suggest Asia. Its history dates back to a very early period.

Vincent’s “Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients” speaks of the imports of it from the Red Sea into Alexandria in the second century. It has been known in India from a very remote period, the Greek and Latin names for ginger being derived from the Sanskrit. The Greek name for ginger is conceded to have been taken from its Persian application.

Ginger is indigenous to China, and many leading authorities aver that it derives its name ginger in China, where it formerly grew abundantly, and that the plant was first called gingi at that place. It was common in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and was next in value to pepper, which was most common of all spices.

It was thought by the Greeks and Romans to have been a product of Southern Arabia and was received by them by way of the Red Sea. Pliny describes it as coming from Arabia. The Romans fixed a duty on ginger, which is mentioned among other Indian spices, and ginger is mentioned in the lists of dutiable goods of the Middle Ages, showing that it constituted an important item of commerce between Europe and the East. This duty was levied in Paris in 1296; Barcelona, 1221; Marseilles, 1228. Ginger appears to have been well known in England before the Norman conquest, since it is often referred to in the Anglo-Saxon books of the eleventh century.

Marco Polo appears to have seen the ginger plant, both in India and China, about 1280, and some of the missionary friars who visited India about 1292 give a description of the plant and refer to it as being dug up and transplanted. The Venetian merchants in the early part of the fifteenth century describe the plant as seen by them in India, and, though the Venetians received ginger by way of Egypt, some of the superior kinds were taken from India overland via Afghanistan, Persia, and Turkey, and the Black Sea, then through the Dardanelles to the Mediterranean and to the European market. Francis de Mendoza is said to have first introduced it into America in 1547, bringing it from the East Indies.

There is good proof of its having been shipped for commercial purposes from San Domingo in 1585, and as early as 1547 considerable quantities were sent from the West Indies to Spain.

The plant endures a wide range of climate. It may be grown at the sea level or in high mountain regions, providing the rainfall be abundant or irrigation be adapted. It is found cultivated from the Himalaya Mountains, 5,000 feet above sea level, to Cape Comorin.

It is now found in Southeastern Asia, in some of the islands of the Malayan Archipelago, on the west coast of Africa, in South America, and the West Indies, and, in fact, almost all warm countries, including China and Japan, which are large exporters of ginger. The city of Calcutta (City of Palaces), from two words, Kali-ghatta, signifying the landing place of the Goddess Kali, in Bengal India, exports more than any other city in the world. The finest white ginger, which is most in demand, comes from Jamaica. The acreage is not large, amounting to only 350 acres in 1891; it probably does not now much exceed 400 acres, but improved methods of cultivation have increased the average yield per acre to a large amount. Ginger is found in the following districts of India: Mahur, Massa, Patra, Darra, Kothi, Kotahi, Bagal, and Jayal. It is found throughout the Kwang-tung province, China. The district of Nan-hai, which belongs to the city of Canton, produces a greater quantity and better quality than any other of the neighboring districts. The independent tribes of the Miso-tsu, in the mountains of the northwestern border of the same province, produce much ginger, as does also Cochin China, from which the famous Cochin ginger derives its name. In the district of Hsin-hsing, about thirty miles south of the city of Chao-Ching, on the West River, three-tenths of the flatland and seven-tenths of the cultivated soil in the hills are planted with ginger. A distinction is made between flatland ginger (in Canton dialect ten-keung) which is generally soft and tender, and mountain ginger (shan keung) which is brittle and pungent.

Three kinds of ginger were known among the merchants of Italy about the middle of the fourteenth century.

The first was belledi or baladi (an Arabic name), which, as applied to ginger, would signify “country” or “wild,” and denotes common ginger.

Second: Calombina, which refers to Calumbum, Kolam or Quilon, a port in Travancore, frequently mentioned in the Middle Ages.

Third: Micchino, a name which denoted that the spice had been brought from or by way of Mecca.

It is inferred from the examination of specimens of preserved ginger that are sent abroad from China that the Chinese have a species unknown in other countries. This inference is in harmony with the well-known Chinese secretiveness, a characteristic of this strange people which is not only inbred but also inborn. It is possible, however, that some other plant which is not true ginger may be used in making the celebrated Canton preserved ginger, but, while this possibility is suspected, it has not been proven.

The British and American markets derive their supply of ginger from various parts of the world. The principal kinds found in commerce are Jamaica (Fig. 5), Cochin (Fig. 3), and African (Fig. 4), the Sierra Leone district producing the bulk of the African. Although each of these in its turn has several varieties and qualities, the best and most valued kind of all is Jamaica (Fig. 5), and next to it is the Cochin (Fig. 3). The Cochin when bleached resembles Jamaica to some extent. Ginger is classified into several species, as the narrow leaf, the broad leaf, and the Japanese red leaf; the narrow leaf being the most esteemed.

Ginger thrives best on rich clay or cool loam soil that is well drained. New land which has been plowed but two or three times is best adapted to its cultivation. The ground should be dug up and cleared of weeds. The plant will not grow in dry sand or hard clay soil.

Ginger, being an underground stem of tuberous-appearing roots, takes its botanical name, rhizome, from the Spanish word rais, a root. These roots are known in commerce as races, and in Jamaica as hands, from their irregular palmate form. The real roots are the fibers thrown off the rhizomes.

It is a perennial, reed-like plant, similar in appearance to our iris or flag root, two aerial stems being thrown up from each of the underground roots (Fig. 1), which soon rise above ground to the height of three or four feet. The first of the shoots thrown up bears the leaves, and the second or shorter stem, the flowers, which blossom in August (rhodon) or September. At this time the ground will be covered by the spread of the leaves which wither and fade at the close of the year, when the root is in a ripe state and is ready for harvesting. The leaves are alternate, bright-green, smooth, and tapering or lanceolate at both ends, with very short petioles which gradually diverge from the stem until they are nearly horizontal, seven or eight inches in length.

The flowers are borne on the shorter separate stem (Fig. 2), averaging from six to twelve inches high at the apex of the stems. They appear in dense, ovate, oblong, cane-like spikes from two to three inches long, composed of obtuse, strongly imbricated bracts or scales with membranous margins between each bract, enclosing a single small yellowish-white sessile flower with purple or blue marking, and have an agreeable fragrance.

The ginger planting takes place in March and April when the rainy season begins. The cleared lands are made into beds with a little raised edge which forms trenches between the beds (see illustration), with openings between to allow the water to run off, for, if allowed to stand on the beds, it will cause the tubers to rot, and sometimes the beds are raised between the rows to eighteen-inch squares, two rows being planted on each ridge, the sides being perpendicular. Propagation is effected by divisions of the protuberances of the roots which are broken in small pieces, one or two inches in length, care being taken to leave at least one short bud on each cutting; they are then planted in well-broken beds four inches deep, in the manured holes in the trenches made in the beds which are nine to twelve inches apart and are shaded with bushes, which are replaced in ten days by twigs. The land must be kept well weeded during May, June, and July. It is well to cover the land half an inch deep with a mold of dead leaves, and when it rains the water will be impregnated with manure which filters readily through the leaves to the roots, and they must be kept watered in dry times.

The rhizome sometimes grows to a great size; often a single root will weigh one pound. It is a great impovisher of land and the same ground should not be used more than two consecutive years, and it is better to use it but one year. The yield is 4,000 pounds and upwards to an acre, each plant producing about eight tubers, and eight to ten times more in weight than the amount planted.

The ginger of commerce varies in form from single joints an inch or less in length to flattish, irregularly branched pieces of several joints from three to four inches long. Each branch has a depression at its summit, showing the former attachment of a leafy stem. The color in its natural state is a pale buff. It has a somewhat rough or fibrous appearance, breaking with a short, mealy fracture, and presenting on the surface of the broken parts numerous short, bristly fibers. When young, it has a light color, internally soft, and changing to greenish. As it grows older it becomes grey outside and reddish internally. When ready for digging the texture becomes fibrous and firm and heavy, and when dried it is covered with wrinkled striated brown integuments which give it a crude appearance, which is less developed on the flat surface and, internally, it is less bright and delicate than ginger from which the cuticle part has been removed. The best pieces of ginger root are collected at the harvest and thrown into heaps and covered with cow manure to keep the roots from drying for the next planting.

The scraped ginger, or marrow, has a pale hue and breaks readily and moderately short, the younger and terminal portions appearing pale yellow, being soft and starchy, while the longer transverse sections of the more perfect and outer parts are hard, flinty, and resinous, surrounding a farinaceous center which has a speckled appearance from the cut extremities of the fibers and ducts. The external layer of coated ginger is separated, about one millimeter broad, by a fine line from the whitish mealy interior portion, through the tissue of which numerous vascular bundles and resin cells are irregularly scattered. The external tissue consists of loose outer layer and an inner composed of tubular cells. These are followed by peculiar short parenchymatous cells, the walls of which are sinuous on a transverse section, and partially thickened, imparting a horny appearance. This delicate, felted tissue forms the striated surface of scraped ginger and is the principal seat of the resin and volatile oil, which here fill large spaces, the principal constituents being of the parenchymatous cells loaded with starch and resin. The volatile oil gives ginger its odor; the resin, pungency. The starch granules are irregularly spherical in form, attaining at the utmost forty millimeters in diameter. Certain varieties of ginger, owing to the starch having been rendered gelatinous by scalding, are throughout horny and translucent. The circle of vascular bundles which separates the outer layers and the central portion is narrow and has the structure of the corresponding circle or nucleus sheath of tumeric. (See illustrations 12, 13, 14, Chap. III; illustration 12 shows ginger adulterated; 13 and 14 pure.) Coated ginger has usually a less bright, delicate hue than ginger from which the cuticle part has been removed, much of it being dark, horny, and resinous.

Ginger differs in quality and in commercial value in different localities. It is also influenced by the cultivation, harvesting, and preparation, but all true ginger has the same starchy, fibrous rhizome; the best quality is plump, with little or no epidermis, while the inferior quality is frequently coated and is not so plump.

Borneo or Cochin (Fig. 3) (or bleached ginger) is said to be produced by submitting the root to the action of the fumes of burning sulphur or by washing it in chloride of lime, but by chemical analysis it has been found that the bleached appearance is due to the application of common whitewash to the root, which is dusted over while wet with marble dust. This treatment, of course, injures the quality of the root.

The Cochin ginger is what is called the white ginger. It is prepared by washing and scraping the roots one at a time. This process takes much time, and the only benefit to be derived from it is that it makes the root more agreeable to the eye, and for that reason causes it to bring a much higher price.

At the time of digging the rhizomes boiling is kept in the field with frequent changing of water, and the roots intended for market are plunged into the boiling water and allowed to remain for about ten minutes. This process injures the aromatic spirits of the ginger.

At the first of the year, in January or February, the harvesting takes place. The form in which ginger is harvested differs in different countries. In some countries the ginger is dried with the epidermis removed. This is known as scraped ginger. In other countries the ginger is harvested without removing the epidermis. These two forms of the product are known commercially as coated and uncoated ginger. The scraped ginger is exported mostly from Cochin and Brazil, the coated from Africa and from a district of India, and is known as Malabar ginger. It is exported from the city of Calcutta.

When the roots are first dug they are placed in baskets suspended by ropes and are pulled by two men with ropes at each end of the basket for two hours each day for two days, giving them a good shaking up to remove the scales and rootlets. The rhizomes are next spread on a raised platform to dry for eight days and are then shaken, when two more days’ drying puts them in keeping state for the market. They are put up in parcels of one hundred pounds each. The product is known as black ginger.

With proper care much money might be made by cultivating ginger in India, but since this crop receives but little care it has but a small market value. The roots many times are cared for by simply smearing with cow manure. They are hung about huts to dry and become shriveled and dirty, and although they may be well smoked, they will be badly bored by the bamboo insects.

India ginger is quite similar to African and is known in commerce as Calcutta (not shown in illustration), from the city of export and is largely used for flavoring. It also is superior for ginger snaps, ginger beer, and ginger wine.

The African and Barbadoes differ from the India by the epidermis being less shriveled. They are not so hard or dark, and are sometimes scraped and bleached and made white by the chemical process of chloride of lime, a process which impairs the quality of the product but increases its market value. The bleaching and coating with gypsum or carbonate of lime is a process often applied to old and inferior roots to make them salable by making them more attractive to the eye. The Jamaica is the best ginger and is always told by its pale, bright-yellow color. The real marrow or white ginger (Zingiber album) is obtained from the scraped Jamaica ginger, which is free from resin and will give up properties to water very readily, a fact which makes it very valuable for medicinal use.

China preserved ginger has a more agreeable aromatic flavor than that of the West Indies, and the celebrated Canton preserved excels all other preserved ginger. The syrup waters drawn off are used for cool drinks. Canton exported for the first quarter of the year 1905 650 piculs of preserved ginger of 133 pounds each.

When the tubers are intended for sugar-pressed ginger, they are dug in early spring, while green, to obtain that which is young, tender, and full of juice. The soft, succulent, perennial rhizomes at such times rarely exceed five to six inches in length and are known as green ginger. They are buried in another place for a month and are then dried in the sunshine for one day, after which they are fit for green ginger.

Preserved ginger (_Condition Zangibaris_) is prepared by cleaning the green root, which is dug when young and tender and full of sap, before it is hard and woody, and scalding it until it is sufficiently tender. It is next put into cold water and peeled and scraped gradually, an operation which may last three or four days, the water being changed often. After this it is put into glass jars and covered with a thin or weak syrup which, in two or three days, is changed for a richer syrup. Sometimes even a third syrup is poured off for the fourth and yet thicker syrup, but not often. The syrup will be very thick and the ginger will be bright and nearly transparent. The following rule for making preserved ginger is infallible: Let the young tubers boil for twenty-four hours, then peel off the discolored and hard parts. Next boil one pound loaf sugar in six pints of water and pour the syrup over twelve pounds of the cooked ginger in a jar. Let it stand for one week, when the syrup is drawn off and the ginger is again boiled and treated to another syrup like the first and left to stand another week, when again the syrup should be drawn off through a fine sieve. Return the ginger to the stone jar and pour over it the final syrup, made of twelve pints of boiling water and twelve pounds of loaf sugar, boiled and stirred until it is as thick as good honey, and will drop slowly from a silver spoon, the ginger having been previously covered with boiling water and allowed to remain until cool. It is next placed in the bottles or jars for which it is intended, in small pieces, as closely as they will pack, up to the cork, so that there will be no room for air. It is then corked with a good, new cork. Candied ginger is dried, sprinkled with sugar, and is imported in boxes.

In order to powder ginger root it must first be passed through a cracker machine, as it is called, to reduce it to a proper size for feeding in a