Chapter XXXV: Section III (3)

At the commencement of the monsoons, beds of ten or twelve feet long by three or four feet wide are formed, and in these beds small holes are dug at three-fourths to one foot apart, which are filled with manure. The roots, hitherto carefully buried under sheds, are dug out, the good ones picked from those which are affected by the moisture, or any other concomitant of a half-year's exclusion from the atmosphere, and the process of clipping them into suitable sizes for planting performed by cutting the ginger into pieces of an inch and a half to two inches long. These are then buried in the holes, which have been previously manured, and the whole of the beds are then covered with a good thick layer of green leaves, which, whilst they serve as manure, also contribute to keep the beds from unnecessary dampness, which might otherwise be occasioned by the heavy falls of rain during the months of June and July. Rain is essentially requisite for the growth of the ginger; it is also however necessary, that the beds be constantly kept from inundation, which, if not carefully attended to, the crop is entirely ruined; great precaution is therefore taken in forming drains between the beds, and letting water out, thus preventing a superfluity. On account of the great tendency some kinds of leaves have to breed worms and insects, strict care is observed in the choosing of them, and none but the particular kinds used in manuring ginger are taken in, lest the wrong ones might fetch in worms, which, if once in the beds, no remedy can be resorted to successfully to destroy them; thus they in a very short time ruin the crop. Worms bred from the leaves laid on the soil, though highly destructive, are not so pernicious to ginger cultivation as those which proceed from the effect of the soil. The former kind, whilst they destroy the beds in which they once appear, do not spread themselves to the other beds, be they ever so close, but the latter kind must of _course_ be found in almost all the beds, as they do not proceed from accidental causes, but from the nature of the soil. In cases like these, the whole crop is oftentimes ruined, and the cultivators are thereby subjected to heavy losses.

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.

Amount of imports of ginger into the United Kingdom, with the quantities entered for home consumption:--

West India Entered for East India Entered for
ginger. home consumption. ginger. home consumption.
cwts. cwts. cwts. cwts.
1831 3,551 4,709 849 79
1832 5,947 6,795 2,508 213
1833 6,064 6,570 10,049 1,099
1834 9,913 9,918 10,004 1,638
1835 8,321 8,982 4,489 1,647
1836 10,226 6,304 13,589 3,524
1837 10,933 9,905 23,876 3,386
1838 13,366 9,944 25,649 1,431
1839 8,996 7,213 29,624 914
1840 5,381 7,935 9,719 1,568
1841 4,446 5,523 5,292 1,177
1842 4,671 5,068 3,680 1,956
1843 4,013 5,953 4,106 3,254
casks, &c. casks. bags. bags.
1844 4,619 3,128 5,101 6,964
1845 6,033 4,000 8,165 7,938

Total Retained for
ginger imported. home consumption.
cwts. cwts.
1846 24,370 15,937
1846 20,010 15,163
1847 12,995 9,744
1848 13,748 10,454
1849 28,015 12,880
1850 33,953 16,543
1851 35,678 19,855
1852 20,297 18,691

GALANGALE ROOT is a good deal used in China, and forms an article of commerce, fetching in the London market 12s. to 16s. per cwt. in bond. It is the rhizoma of _Alpinia Galanga_. Its taste is peppery and aromatic. Externally the color of the root-stocks is reddish brown, internally pale reddish white.

1,280 cwt. of galangale root, valued at 2,880 dollars, was exported from Canton in 1850.

CARDAMOMS.

Cardamoms are the production of various species of plants of the same tribe as the ginger, and might be profitably cultivated with that aromatic root, as well as the Turmeric (_Curcuma longa_), which see.

Various species of _Alpiniæ_, _Amomum_, _Elettaria_, _and Renealmia_, appear to furnish the cardamoms of the shops, which consist of the oval, trivalvular capsules containing the seeds. The bright yellow seeds are used in medicine as aromatic tonics and carminatives; and for curries, ketchups, soups, &c. Their active ingredient is a pungent volatile oil. The least dampness injures the finer sorts. About 688 cwts. of cardamoms, and 5,000 cwts. of bastard cardamoms are annually exported from Siam, "We imported about 300 tons in 1849. The price ranges from 1s. 6d. to 3s. the pound. The estimated value of the cardamoms and pepper shipped from Ceylon in the past few years was as follows:--1846, £208; 1847, £246; 1848, £205; 1849, £454; 1850, £960; 1851, £771; 1852, £590. The" following are some of the plants from which cardamoms are procured.

1. _Amomum Cardamomum_, a Java plant, supplies the round cardamoms. It has pale brown flowers. The fruit varies in size from that of a black currant to a cherry.

_2. A. angustifolium_ (Pereira), a plant having red blossoms; furnishes the large Madagascar cardamoms, and also supplies some of the seeds called "Grains of Paradise," which are, however, larger than those imported under that name.

This species is found in Abyssinia, according to my friend Mr. Chas. Johnston, author of "Travels in Abyssinia," who favored me with some specimens. The seeds are pale olive brown, devoid of the fiery peppery taste of the grains of paradise.

3. _A. maximum_, the great winged amomum, produces the Java cardamoma of the London market, and is also grown extensively in Ceylon, the Malay islands, Nepaul, Sumatra, and other islands of the Eastern Archipelago. There were exported from Ceylon in 1842, 5,364 lbs.; in 1843, 9,632 lbs.; 1844, 7,280 lbs.; and in 1845, 11,812 lbs. The pods are large and long, and dark colored, approaching to black, the taste nauseous and disagreeable, not the least resembling that of the Malabar cardamoms. It is propagated by cuttings of the rhizoma. The plants yield in three years, and afterwards give an annual crop. They are not used here, but sent to the continent.

4. _Alpinia Cardamomum_.--This is the source of the clustered cardamoms, and furnishes the best known sort. Its produce is in great request throughout India, fetching as much as £30 the candy of 600 Lbs. About 192 candies are grown annually in Travancore, and the usual crop in Malabar is reckoned at 100 candies annually. It flourishes on the mountainous parts of the Malabar coast, and among the western mountains of Wynaad. The bulbous plants, which grow three or four feet high, are produced in the recesses of the mountains by felling trees, and afterwards burning them, for wherever the ashes fall in the openings or fissures of the rocks, the plant naturally springs up. In the third year the plants come to perfection, bearing abundantly for a year or two, and then die. In Soonda Balagat, and other places where cardamoms are planted, they are much inferior to those grown in the wild state. It may be propagated by cuttings or divisions of the roots. Not more than one-hundredth part of the cardamoms raised in Malabar are used in the country. They are sent in large quantities to the ports on the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf, up the Indus to Scinde, to Bengal and Bombay. The price of Malabar cardamons at Madras, in June, 1853, was about £3 the maund of 25 lbs. They fetch in the Bombay market £4 10s. the maund of 40 lbs. Cardamoms form a universal ingredient in curries, pillaus, &c. The seed capsules are gathered as they ripen, and when dried in the sun are fit for sale. They should be chosen full, plump, and difficult to be broken; of a bright yellow color, and piercing smell; with an acrid bitterish, though not very unpleasant taste, and particular care should be taken that they are properly dried.

_5. Amomum Grana-Paradisi_, which is indigenous to the islands of Madagascar and Ceylon, yields an inferior sort of cardamoms, known by the names of grains of paradise, or Meleguetta pepper. These are worth in the English market only from 1s. 2d. to 1s. 4d. per pound, while the long and Malabar cardamoms fetch 2s. 8d. to 3s. 3d. the pound. This plant is a native of Guinea, and the western parts of Africa about Sierra Leone. We imported from thence in 1841, 7,911 pounds.

The taste of these Guinea grains is aromatic and vehemently hot or peppery. They are imported in casks from Africa, and are principally used in veterinary medicine, and to give an artificial strength to spirits, wine, beer, &c. The average quantity on which duty was paid in the six years ending with 1840, was 16,000 lbs. per annum. They are esteemed in Africa the most wholesome of spices, and generally used by the natives to season their food.

Dr. Pereira, from a careful examination and close inquiry, is of opinion that the _Amomum Grana-Paradisi_ of Smith, and the _Amamum Melegueta_ of Roscoe, are identical species.

In the second volume of the "Pharmaceutical Journal," Dr. Pereira states that the term "grains of paradise," or Melegueta, has been applied to the produce of no less than six scitamineous plants. At the present time, and in this country, the term is exclusively given to the hot acrid seeds imported into England from the coast of Guinea, and frequently called Guinea grains; and by the Africans Guinea pepper.

_Elettaria Cardomomum_, Don.--The fruit of this species constitutes the true, small, officinal Malabar cardamoms. It is an ovate oblong, obtusely triangular capsule, from three to ten lines long, rarely exceeding three lines in breadth, coriaceous, ribbed, greyish or brownish yellow. It contains many angular, blackish or reddish brown rugose seeds, which are white internally, have a pleasant aromatic odor, and a warm agreeable taste. 100 parts of the fruit yield 74 parts of seeds, and 26 parts of pericarpal coats.

This seems to be identical with _Amomum Cardamomum_.

_Elettaria major_, is a perennial, native of Ceylon, which grows in shady situations in a rich mixed soil. The dried capsules are known in commerce as wild or Ceylon cardamoms, and are of less value in the market than those of Malabar (_Elettaria Cardamomum_, Maton). It is chiefly grown about the Kandyan district; and in the eight years ending with 1813, the average export was nine and a-half candies per annum. The seeds in taste resemble our carraways, and are used for seasoning various dishes.

Ceylon cardamoms are now worth in the London market (Sept., 1853) 1s. to 1s. 3d. per lb.; Malabar ditto, 2s. 3d. to 3s.

PEPPER.

The black pepper of commerce is obtained from the dried unripe fruit (drupes) of _Piper nigrum_, a climbing plant common in the East Indies, and of the simplest culture, being multiplied with facility by cuttings or suckers. The ripe fruit, when deprived of its outer fleshy covering by washing, forms the white pepper of the shops. The dried fruiting spikes of _P. longum_, a perennial shrub, native of Malabar and Bengal, constitute long pepper. The fruit of _Xylopia aromatica_ is commonly called Ethiopian pepper, from being used as pepper in Africa. The seeds of some species of fennel-flower (_Nigella sativa_ and _arvensis_), natives of the south of Europe, were formerly used instead of pepper, and are said to be still extensively employed in adulterating it. In Japan, the capsules of _Xanthoxylum piperitum_, or _Fagara Piperita_, are used as a substitute for pepper, and so is the fruit of _Tasmannia aromatica_ in Van Diemen's Land. According to Dr. Roxburgh, _P. trioicum_ is cultivated in the East, and yields an excellent pepper.

The pepper vine rises about two feet in the first year of its growth, and attains to nearly six feet in the second, at which time, if vigorous and healthy, the petals begin to form the corolla or blossom. All suckers and side shoots are to be carefully removed, and the vines should be thinned or pruned, if they become bushy at the top. Rank coarse weeds and parasitical plants should be uprooted. The vine would climb, if permitted, to the elevation of twenty feet, but is said to bear best when kept down to the height of ten or twelve feet. It produces two crops in the year. The fruit grows abundantly from all the branches, in long small clusters of from 20 to 50 grains; when ripe it is of a bright red color. After being gathered, it is spread on mats in the sun to dry, when it becomes black and shrivelled. The grains are separated from the stalks by hand rubbing. The roots and thickest parts of the stems, when cut into small pieces and dried, form a considerable article of commerce all over India, under the name of _Pippula moola_.

Almost all the plants of the family _Piperaceæ_ have a strong aromatic smell and a sharp burning taste. This small group of plants is confined to the hottest regions of the globe; being most abundant in tropical America and in the East Indian Archipelago, but more rare in the equinoctial regions of Africa. The common black pepper, _P. nigrum_, represents the usual property of the order, which is not confined to the fruit, but pervades, more or less, the whole plant. It is peculiar to the torrid zone of Asia, and appears to be indigenous to the coast of Malabar, where it has been found in a wild state. From this it extends between the meridians of longitude 96 deg. and 116 deg. S. and the parallels of latitude 5 deg. S. and 12 deg. N., beyond which no pepper is found. Within these limits are the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, with the Malay peninsula and part of Siam. Sumatra produces by far the greatest quantity of pepper. In 1842, the annual produce of this island was reckoned at 30,000,000 lbs., being more than the amount furnished by all the other pepper districts in the world.

A little pepper is grown in the Mauritius and the West India Islands, and its cultivation is making some progress on the Western Coast of Africa, as we imported from thence 2,909 bags and casks in 1846, and about 110,000 lbs. in 1847.

Mr. J. Crawfurd, F.R.S., one of the best authorities on all that relates to the commerce and agriculture of the Eastern Archipelago, recently estimated the produce of pepper as follows:--

lbs.
Sumatra (West Coast) 20,000,000
" (East Coast) 8,000,000
Islands in the Straits of Malacca 3,600,000
Malay Peninsula 3,733,333
Borneo 2,666,667
Siam 8,000,000
Malabar 4,060,000
----------
Total 50,000,000

If we add to this

Western Coast of Africa and B.W. Indies 53,000
Java 4,000,000
Mauritius and Ceylon 80,000
----------
It gives 54,133,000
as the total produce of the world

Black pepper constitutes a great and valuable article of export from the Indian Islands; which, as we have seen, afford by far the largest portion of What is consumed throughout the world. In the first intercourse of the Dutch and English with India, it constituted the most considerable and important staple of their commerce. The production of pepper is confined in a great measure to the western countries of the Eastern Archipelago, and among these to the islands in the centre and to the northern quarter, including the Peninsula. It is obtained in the ports on both sides of the coast of the latter, but particularly the north-eastern coast. The principal quarters (according to Mr. Crawfurd, my authority on this subject), are Patani, Tringanu, and Kalantin. In the Straits a large quantity is produced in the island of Singapore, and above all in Pinang, where the capital of Europeans and the skill and industry of the Chinese have been successfully applied to its culture. The western extremity of Sumatra, and the north-west coast of that island, are the most remarkable situations in it for the production of pepper, and here we have Acheen, Tikao, Bencoolen, Padang, and the country of the Lampungs. The production of the eastern extremity of Sumatra or Palembang is considerable, but held of inferior quality. In the fertile island of Java, the quantity of pepper grown is inconsiderable, nor is it remarkable for the goodness of its quality.

The province of Bantam has always furnished, and still continues to produce, the most pepper; but the culture of this creeper is fast giving place in Java to staples affording higher profits and requiring less care. The exports were, in the following years:--

piculs. | lbs.
1830 6,061 | 1843 3,737,732
1835 11,868 | 1848 461,680
1839 11,044 | 1851 95,037
1841 13,477 | 1852 135,690

The number of pepper vines in the district of Bencoolen, in the close of last year, 1852, was as follows:--1,571,894 young vines; 2,437,052 bearing ditto; total, 4,008,946.

Up to the end of September there had been delivered to the Government 1,145 piculs white pepper, and 1,128 piculs black pepper, while of the harvest of 1852 there were still probably to be received 330 piculs white, and 4,967 piculs black pepper.

The south, the west, and the north coasts of the great island of Borneo produce a large quantity of pepper; as early as 1721 it was a staple commodity of this island. Banjarmassin is the most productive place on the south coast, and the State of Borneo Proper on the north coast. The best pepper certainly does not grow in the richest soils, for the peppers of Java and Palembang are the worst of the Archipelago, and that of Pinang and the west coast of Sumatra are the best. Care in culture and curing improves the quality, as with other articles, and for this reason chiefly it is that the pepper of Pinang is more in esteem than that of any other portion of the Archipelago. From the ports and districts of Siam 3,500 to 4,000 tons are exported annually.

The duty at present levied on pepper in England is 6d. per lb., while the wholesale price for that of Pinang, Malabar, and Sumatra is about 4d. per lb. White pepper ranges from 9d. to 1s. 6d. per lb. The prime cost in Singapore is not more than 1½d. per lb.

About 70,000 or 80,000 piculs of pepper are annually exported from Singapore, of which between 30,000 and 40,000 piculs have, until within the last two years, gone on to Great Britain. More than one-half of the pepper exported from Singapore is grown in the island by Chinese settlers.

The low selling price of the article in the English market, the high duty levied upon it, and the large freight paid for its carriage to Great Britain, now leave so small a price to the cultivator in Singapore, that the cultivation ceases to be remunerative, and is carried on at a loss; and has consequently within the last year or two begun to decrease rapidly, involving the Chinese growers, who are generally of the poorest class, and without capital, in great distress. A reduction in the duty on pepper has always been followed by a very large increase in the consumption of the article, as will appear from the following table, showing the importation and consumption in Great Britain during some of the first and last years of the different rates of duty:--

Duty Singapore price
Year Quantity consumed s. d. s. d. s. d.
1811 1,457,383 1 10½ 0 7½ to 0 7¾
1814 941,569 1 10½ 0 11 " 1 1
1820 1,404,021 2 6 0 6½ " 0 6¾
1824 1,447,030 2 6 0 4¾ " 0 5½
1826 2,529,027 2 0 0 4 " 0 4½
1836 2,749,491 1 0 0 0 " 0 0
1837 2,625,075 0 6 0 0 " 0 0
1845 3,210,415 0 6 0 2¼ " 0 4¾

In a memorial from the mercantile community of Singapore, sent home in 1848, it is asserted that a reduction in the duty of pepper being always attended by a large increase in the consumption, would not lead to any serious loss in the revenue, while it would confer a great boon on the poorer classes, to whom it has now become a necessary article of life. The reduction would also be of great advantage to British manufacturers, as well as to our Indian possessions, by giving rise to an increased demand or British goods and productions, and of the highest benefit to the agricultural settlers in the island of Singapore, by enabling them to procure for their labor an honest means of livelihood.

The pepper vines, which are allowed to climb poles or small trees, are tolerably productive at Singapore; and pepper planting is esteemed by the Chinese to be a profitable speculation, particularly if they are enabled to evade the payment of quit-rent. An acre of pepper vines will yield 1,161 lbs. of clean pepper. In Sumatra a full grown plant has been known to produce seven pounds; in Pinang the yield is much more. The average produce of one thousand vines is said, however, to be only about 450 lbs.

Colonel Low, in his "Dissertation on Pinang," published at Singapore some years ago, gives an interesting account of the culture:--

"Pepper was, during many years, the staple product of Pinang soil,
the average annual quantity having been nearly four millions of
pounds; but previous to the year 1810, the above amount had
decreased to about two-and-a-half millions of pounds, which was the
result of the continental system.

The price having fallen at length to three and three-and-a-half
dollars the picul--with only a few occasional exceptions of
rises--the cultivation of this spice was gradually abandoned, and
the total product at this day does not exceed 2,000 piculs. The
original cost, when pepper was at a high price, together with
charges of transporting it to Europe, amounted to £36,357 for every
five hundred tons, and the loss by wastage was estimated at £5,405.
In 1818 there remained on the island 1,480,265 pepper vines in
bearing, and the average value of exports of pepper from Pinang,
including that received from other places, was averaged at 106,870
Spanish dollars.

As might have been foreseen, the fall of prices has so greatly
diminished the cultivation of pepper to the eastward, that a
reaction is likely to take place; and has in fact partly shown
itself already. Some Chinese in Pinang and Province Wellesley seem
to be preparing to renew the cultivation. There is abundant scope
for the purpose on both sides of the harbour, and every facility is
at hand for carrying it on.

The pepper plant or vine requires a good soil, the richer the
better, but the _red_ soil of the higher hills is not congenial, the
Chinese think, to it. The undulations skirting the bases of the
hills, and the deep alluvial lands, where not saturated with water,
or liable to be overflowed, are preferred.

The Chinese have always been the chief cultivators, and when the
speculation flourished they received advances from the merchants,
which they paid back in produce at fixed rates.

When pepper was extensively cultivated on Prince of Wales Island,
the European owner of the land had the forest cleared by contract,
and the vines planted by contract, and when the vines came into
bearing the plantation was farmed to the Chinese from year to year,
on payment of a specific quantity of pepper. Any other plan would
have ruined the capitalist, as the culture is almost entirely in
their hands in the Straits' Settlements, and they will not work so
well for others as when they are specially interested.

The plants are set out at intervals, _every way_, of from seven to
twelve feet, according to the degree of fertility of the soil, so
that there are from 800 to 1,000 vines in one orlong of land; to
each vine is allotted a prop of from ten to thirteen feet high, cut
from the thorny tree called _dadap_, or where that is scarce, from
the less durable _boonglai_; these props take root, thus affording
both shade and support to the plant. The plant may be raised from
seed pepper, but the plan is not approved of, cuttings being
preferable, as they soonest come into bearing. The pits in which
these cuttings are set should be a foot-and-a-half square, and two
feet in depth; manure is not often applied, and then it is only some
turf ashes. However unpicturesque a pepper plantation may be, still
its neat and uniform appearance renders the landscape lively, and
there can be little doubt that the island has suffered in its
salubrity since the jungle usurped the extensive tracts formerly
under pepper cultivation.

When the vine has reached the height of three or four feet, it is
bent down and laid in the earth, and about five of the strongest
shoots which now spring up are retained and carefully trained up the
prop, to which they are tied by means of ligatures of some creeping
plants.

One Chinese, after the plantation has been formed, can take care of
two orlongs of land. The usual mode is this:--an advance is made by
the capitalist to the laborer for building a house, and for
agricultural implements; he then receives two dollars monthly to
subsist on, until the end of the third year, when the estate or
plantation is equally divided betwixt the contracting parties.

The Chinese and even European cultivators used formerly to engage
the Chinese who had just arrived from China; they paid off their
passage-money, and then allowed them two dollars monthly, for
provisions, for one year; with a suit of clothes, by which means the
cost of the labor of one man averaged about three dollars monthly;
but this plan is attended with risks.

The cost attendant on the cultivation of two orlongs of land, with
pepper, for three years--the Chinese laborer receiving the usual
hire of _five_ Spanish dollars monthly--will be nearly as follows:--

Spanish dollars.
Price of land, clearing, and planting 40
Quit rent, at 75 cents per annum per orlong 9
Two thousand plants 4
" dadap props 6
Implements 6
House 10
Labor 200
Interest, loosely calculated at 30
---
Total Spanish dollars 305

In a very good soil a pepper vine will yield about one-eighth of a
pound of dry produce at the end of the first year; at the end of the
second, about a quarter of a pound; and at the expiration of the
third, probably one pound; at the end of the fourth, from three to
three-and-a-half pounds; ditto fifth, from eight to ten pounds.
After the fifth year up to the fifteenth, or even the twentieth
year, about ten pounds of dry merchantable produce may be obtained
from each vine, under favorable circumstances. The Chinese
speculator used to rent out his half-share of a new plantation for
five years, to his cultivating partner, after the expiration of the
first three years, at the rate of thirty piculs per annum; the total
produce of these five years giving about fifty-six piculs annually
as an average.

A pepper plantation never survives the thirtieth year, unless in
extremely rich soil, and then it is unproductive; nor will the young
vine thrive on an old worn out pepper land, a peculiarity which is
applicable to the coffee tree. The chief crop lasts from August to
February. Four pounds of dry produce, for ten of green, is
considered a fair estimate. Great care is requisite in the
management of the vine, and especially in training and tying it on
the props. It is subject to be injured by the attacks of a small
insect. The green pepper dries in two or three days, and if it is
intended that it shall be black, it is pulled before it is quite
ripe. To make white pepper, the berry is allowed to remain somewhat
longer on the vine; it is, when plucked, immersed in boiling water,
by means of which process and subsequent friction, before drying,
the husk is separated.

The exports of pepper from Pinang in the last four years have
been--In 1849, 2,591,233 lbs.; in 1850, 6,397,733 lbs.; in 1851,
2,366,933 lbs.; in 1852, 2,112,133 lbs."

A small quantity of pepper seems to be annually exported from Ceylon, which I presume is the growth of that island; thus there were:--

54 cwts. shipped in 1842
83 " " 1843
102 " " 1844

In the Customs' returns of Ceylon, it is classed with cardamoms, and 160 to 170 cwt. of the two were shipped in each of the years 1850 and 1851. Last year the quantity was smaller.

Pepper cultivation has been introduced into the Mauritius, and in 1839 more than 500,000 lbs. were imported from thence, but as the shipments have since decreased, I presume it has given place to the more profitable staple sugar. I have been able to glean no information as to the progress it has made in the West Indies. In Cayenne it has been successfully carried on for many years; and large shipments of pepper have been made thence to France.

BLACK PEPPER EXPORTED FROM SINGAPORE.

Piculs. Value in rupees.
1841 Total Exports 66,810
" Growth of Singapore 21,231 47,674
1842 Exports 74,228
" Growth of Singapore 32,277 72,473
1843 Exports 57,883
" Growth of Singapore 35,585 79,900
1844 Exports 67,148
" Growth of Singapore 42,995 386,152
1845 Exports 65,892
" Growth of Singapore 39,019 350,443
1846 Exports 56,709
" Growth of Singapore 35,712 -----
1847 Exports 60,994
" Growth of Singapore 36,565 328,397

Pliny, the naturalist, states that the price of pepper in the market of Rome in his time was, in English money, 9s. 4d. a pound, and thus we have the price of pepper at least 1,774 years ago. The pepper alluded to must have been the produce of Malabar, the nearest part of India to Europe that produced the article, and its prime cost could not have exceeded the present one, or about 2d. a pound. It would most probably have come to Europe by crossing the Indian and Arabian ocean, with the easterly monsoon, sailing up the Red Sea, crossing the desert, dropping down the Nile, and making its way along the Mediterranean by two-thirds of its whole length. This voyage, which in our times can be performed in a month, most probably then took eighteen. Transit and customs duties must have been paid over and over again, and there must have been plenty of extortion. All this will explain how pepper could not be sold in the Roman market under fifty-six times its prime cost. Immediately previous to the discovery of the route to India by the Cape of Good Hope, we find that the price of pepper in the markets of Europe had fallen to 6s a pound, or 3s. 4d. less than in the time of Pliny. What probably contributed to this fall, was the superior skill in navigation of the now converted Arabs, and the extension of their commerce to the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, which abounded in pepper. After the great discovery of Vasco de Gama, the price of pepper fell to about 1s. 3d. a pound, a fall of 8s. 1d. from that of the time of Pliny, and of 4s. 9d. from that of the Mahommedan Arabs, Turks, and Venetians.

In 1826, 14,000,000 lbs. of pepper were imported into the United Kingdom, of which about 5,500,000 were re-exported. In 1841, 15,000,000 lbs. were imported, of which 6,500,000 were re-shipped to other countries.

The home consumption, it will be seen, now averages about 3,250,000 lbs.:--

Imports Home consumption
lbs. lbs.
1845 9,852,984 3,209,718
1846 5,906,586 3,299,955
1847 4,669,930 2,966,022
1848 8,125,545 3,185,337
1849 4,796,042 3,257,911
1850 8,028,319 3,170,883
1851 3,996,496 3,303,403
1852 6,641,699 3,524,501

The following return shows the number of bags of pepper imported into the United Kingdom, with the quantity retained for home consumption:--

Imports. Retained for home consumption.
Black. White. Black. White.
bags bags bags. bags.
1843 37,840 3,861 21,163 2,257
1844 60,705 2,123 23,525 2,122
1845 80,600 3,208 30,294 2,861
1847 37,194 1,236 28,768 2,654
1848 65,518 3,042 31,665 3,950
1849 43,651 2,616 32,246 3,859

CHILLIES AND CAYENNE PEPPER.

Chillies or capsicum are long roundish taper pods, divided into two or three cells, full of small whitish seeds. When this fruit is fresh, it has a penetrating acrid smell; to the taste it is extremely pungent, and produces a most painful burning in the mouth. They are occasionally imported dry, and form the basis of Cayenne pepper; put in vinegar when green or ripe, they are an acceptable present in Europe. In Bengal the natives make an extract from the chillies, which is about the consistence and color of treacle.

The consumption of chillies in India is immense, as both rich and poor daily use them, and it is the principal ingredient in all chutnies and curries; ground into a paste, between two stones, with a little mustard, oil, ginger, and salt, it forms the only seasoning which the millions of poor in that country can obtain to eat with their insipid rice. They are worth in the Bombay market about 40s. the candy of 600 lbs.

Immense quantities of the capsicum are used by the native population of the West Indies, Africa, and Mexico; the consumption as a condiment being almost universal, and perhaps equal in quantity to salt. Ten barrels of these peppers were shipped from Montego Bay, Jamaica, in the first six months of 1851.

The wholesale price of chillies in the London market is from 15s. to 25s. the cwt., and there is a duty of 6d. per pound on them. Cayenne fetches 9d. to 2s. the pound.

Chilli is the Mexican name for all varieties of _Capsicum_. They are natives of the East and West Indies, and other hot climates. _C. annuum_ is the species commonly noticed, but there seems to be numerous varieties, which by many are reckoned species. Thus, _C. frutescens_ is a shrubby plant, which, along with _C. minimum_, supplies the variety called bird-pepper, it grows to a larger and more bushy size; _C. baccatum_ has a globular fruit, and furnishes cherry or berry capsicum. They are all of the simplest culture, and may even be grown with very little care in England. Culture appears to increase the size, but to diminish the pungency of the fruit. In capsicums irritant properties prevail so as to obscure the narcotic action. Their acridity is owing to an oleaginous substance called capsicin. Cayenne pepper is used in medicine chiefly in the form of tincture, as a rubefacient and stimulant, especially in cases of ulcerated sore throat. It acts on the stomach as an aromatic condiment, and when preserved in acetic acid it forms chilli vinegar.

Red pepper may be considered one of the most useful vegetables in hygiene. As a stimulant and auxiliary in digestion it has been considered invaluable, especially in warm countries. A kind called the tobacco red pepper, is said to possess the most pungent properties of any of the species. It yields a small red pod, less than an inch in length, and longitudinal in shape, which is so exceedingly hot that a small quantity of it is sufficient to season a large dish of any food. Owing to its oleaginous character, it has been found impossible to preserve it by drying, but by pouring strong boiling vinegar on it a sauce or decoction can be made, which possesses in a concentrated form all the essential qualities of the vegetable. A single drop of this sauce will flavor a whole plate of soup or other food.

The "wort" or Cayenne pottage may be termed the national dish of the Abyssinians, as that, or its basis "dillock," is invariably eaten with their ordinary diet, the thin crumpet-like bread of teff or wheat flour. Equal parts of salt and the red cayenne pods are well powdered and mixed together with a little pea or bean meal to make a paste. This is called "dillock," and is made in quantities at a time, being preserved in a large gourd-shell, generally suspended from the roof. The "wort" is merely a little water added to this paste, which is then boiled over the fire, with the addition of a little fat meat and more meal to make a kind of porridge, to which sometimes is also added several warm seeds, such as the common cress or black mustard, both of which are indigenous in Abyssinia.--("Johnston's Abyssinia.")

A great quantity of Agi or Guinea pepper is grown in Peru, the natives being very fond of this condiment. It is not uncommon for an American Indian to make a meal of twenty or thirty pods of capsicum, a little salt, and a piece of bread, washed down by two or three quarts of chica, the popular beverage.

PIMENTO.

The pimento, _Eugenia Pimento_ (_Myrtus Pimenta_), is a native of Mexico, and the West Indies. It flourishes spontaneously and in great abundance on the north side of the island of Jamaica; its numerous white blossoms mixing with the dark green foliage, and with the slightest breeze diffusing around the most delicious fragrance, give a beauty and a charm to nature rarely equalled, and of which he who has not visited the shady arbors and perfumed groves of the tropics can have little conception. This lovely tree, the very leaf of which when bruised emits a fine aromatic odor, nearly as powerful as that of the spice itself, has been known to grow to the height of from 30 to 40 feet, exceedingly straight, and having for its base the spinous ridge of a rock, eight or ten feet above the surface of the hill or mountain. A single tree has frequently produced 150 lbs. of the raw, or 100 lbs. of the dried fruit.

The fruit has an aromatic odor, and its taste combines that of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves; hence its common name of allspice. The fruit of _Eugenia acris_ is used for pimento.

The trunk is of a grey color, smooth and shining, and altogether destitute of bark. It is luxuriantly clothed with leaves of a deep green, somewhat like those of the bay tree, and these leaves are, in the months of July and August, beautifully contrasted and relieved by an exuberance of white flowers. The leaves yield by distillation a delicate odoriferous oil, which is said to be sometimes passed off for oil of cloves.

The berries are gathered before they are ripe, and spread on a terrace, exposed to the sun for about a week, during which time they lose their green color, and acquire that reddish brown tint which renders them marketable. Some planters kiln-dry them. Like many of the minor productions of the tropics, pimento is exceedingly uncertain, and perhaps a very plenteous crop occurs but once in five years.

In 1800 there were 12,759 bags and 610 casks of pimento imported from Jamaica; in 1824 there were 33,308 bags and 599 casks shipped from the island; in 1829 the quantity exported was 6,069,127 lbs.

In the year ending October 1843, the export of pimento from Jamaica was 29,322 bags and 156 casks; in the year ending October 1844, 12,055 bags and 88 casks; in the year ending October 1845, 233 casks, valued at 30s. each, and 59,494 bags, valued at 20s.

From 1st January to 1st August, 1851, 128,277 lbs. pimento were shipped from the port of Montego Bay, Jamaica.

There was a very considerable pimento plantation made in Tobago, some years ago, by a Mr. Franklin, but it was abandoned by his sons, that they might attend the more exclusively to sugar culture.

Jamaica exported nearly two millions of pounds of pimento less, in the three years ending 1848, than she did in the three previous to the emancipation of the slaves. The number of pounds shipped annually, in these periods, is shown by the following figures:--

Year. lbs.
1830 5,560,620
1831 3,172,320
1832 4,024,800
1846 2,997,060
1847 2,800,140
1848 5,231,908

Pimento is imported into this country in bags of about 100 lbs. each. The imports have been:--

Year. Imports. Home consumption.
cwts. cwts.
1848 20,773 4,230
1849 24,994 3,419
1850 20,448 3,467
1851 14,840 3,935
1852 22,708 3,872

The following is a statement of the imports from the West Indies, and the consumption of the United Kingdom, in pounds:--

Entries for
Year. Imports. home consumption.
lbs. lbs.
1831 1,801,355 305,739
1832 1,366,183 296,197
1833 4,770,255 330,890
1834 1,389,402 320,719
1835 2,536,353 343,942
1836 3,230,978 400,941
1837 2,026,128 383,401
1838 892,974 383,997
1839 1,071,511 309,078
1840 999,068 338,969
1841 797,757 297,201
1842 1,643,318 450,683
1843 2,028,658 378,096

The imports have been, in--

bags.
1843 18,649
1844 2,408
1845 21,092
1847 9,649
1848 18,196
1849 14,108

Pimento is worth in the London market 6d. to 7d. per lb. The duty is 5s. per cwt.

VANILLA.

The fleshy, pod-like, odoriferous fruit of different species of _Epidendrum_ constitute the substance called vanilla, which is used in confectionery for giving a delicious perfume to chocolate, liqueurs, &c. As an aromatic it is much sought after by confectioners, for flavoring ices and creams; and also by perfumers, liqueurists, and distillers. The best comes from the forests round the village of Zurtila, in the intendancy of Oaxaca, on the eastern slopes of the Cordillera of Anahuac, between the parallels of 19 deg. and 20 deg. N. All the vanilla which is used in Europe is imported from Mexico, Venezuela, and Vera Cruz.

It is a native of tropical America, and grows wild in Brazil, Peru, the banks of the Orinoco, and all places where heat, shade, and moisture prevail. There are many species indigenous to the Bahamas, Trinidad, Jamaica, Cuba, Dominica, Martinique and St. Vincent, which would produce considerable gain to the inhabitants if they would give themselves the trouble of cultivating or collecting its fruit.

This parasitical plant has a trailing stem, not unlike the common ivy, but not so woody, by which it attaches itself to the trunks of trees, and sucks the moisture which their bark derives from the lichens and other cryptogamia, but without drawing nourishment from the tree itself, like the misletoe and loranthus. The Indians in Mexico propagate it by planting cuttings at the foot of trees selected for that purpose. It rises to the height of 18 or 20 feet; the flowers are of a greenish yellow, mixed with white. The plant is subcylindrical about eight or ten inches long, of a yellow color when gathered, but dark brown or black when imported into Europe. It is one-celled siliquose, and pulpy within, wrinkled on the outside, and full of a vast number of seeds like grains of sand, having when properly prepared, a peculiar and delicious fragrance. It should be gathered before it is fully ripe.

Different species of vanilla are natives of Guiana, and it is found in large quantities along the banks of its rivers, and in the wooded districts which intersperse the savannahs. The oily and balsamic substance which the minute seeds possess, may be found to have medicinal qualities. Its cultivation can be connected with no difficulties; it needs only to plant the slips among trees, and to keep them clear of weeds. It would prove therefore a great addition to a cocoa plantation. In 1825 the price was, in Germany, sixty-six dollars (equal to £9) per pound, and twenty-five to thirty dollars are paid for it in Martinique.

Humboldt states that the annual value of vanilla exported from the state of Vera Cruz was 40,000 dollars, £8,000 sterling. Some vanilla is exported from Maranham. The cultivation of vanilla, which was introduced into Java in the year 1847, is said to have made considerable progress, there being now no fewer than thirty plantations.

The fruit of this orchideous plant is entirely neglected in the province of Caracas, though abundant crops of it might be gathered on the humid coast between Porto Cabello and Ocumare, especially at Turiamo, where the pods attain the length of nearly a foot. The English and American merchants often seek to make purchases at the port of La Guayra, but with difficulty procure it in small quantities.

In the valleys that descend from the chain of coast towards the Caribbean sea, in the province of Truxillo, as well as in the mission of Guiana, near the cataracts of the Orinoco, a great quantity of the vanilla pods might be collected, the produce of which would be still more abundant, if, according to the practice of the Mexicans, the plant were disentangled from time to time from the other creepers, with which it is intertwined and stifled.

When collected to prepare it for the market, about 12,000 of the pods are strung like a garland by their lower end, as near as possible to their foot-stalk; the whole are plunged for an instant into boiling water to blanch them; they are then hung up in the open air and exposed to the sun for a few hours. By some they are wrapped in woollen cloths to sweat. Next day they are lightly smeared with oil, by means of a feather or the fingers, and are surrounded with oiled cotton to prevent the valves from opening. As they become dry, on inverting their upper end they discharge a viscid liquor from it, and they are pressed several times with oiled fingers to promote its flow. The dried pods, like the berries of pepper, change color under the drying operation, grow brown, wrinkled, soft, and shrink to one-fourth of their original size. In this state they are touched a second time with oil, but very sparingly, because with too much oil they would lose some of their delicious perfume.

They are then packed for the market in small bundles of 50 or 100 in each, enclosed in lead foil, or tight metallic cases.

There are four local varieties, all differing in price and excellence; viz., the vanilla _fina_, the _zacate_, the _rezacate_, and the _vasura_.

One pod of vanilla is sufficient to perfume a pound and a half of cacao. It is with difficulty reduced to fine particles, but it may be sufficiently attenuated by cutting it into small bits, and grinding these along with sugar.

As it comes to us, vanilla is a capsular fruit, of the thickness of a swan's quill; straight, cylindrical, but somewhat flattened, truncated at the top, thinned off at the ends, glistening, wrinkled, furrowed lengthwise, flexible, from five to ten inches long, and of a reddish brown color. It contains a pulpy parenchyma, soft, unctuous, very brown, in which are embedded black, brilliant, very small seeds.

The kind most esteemed in France is called _leq_ vanilla; it is about six inches long, from one-fourth to one-third of an inch broad, narrowed at the two ends and curved at the base; somewhat soft and viscid, of a dark reddish color, and of a most delicious flavor, like that of balsam of Peru. It is called vanilla _giorees_, when it is covered with efflorescences of benzcoin acid, after having been kept in a dry place, and in vessels not hermetically closed.

The second sort, called _vanilla simarona_, or bastard, is a little smaller than the preceding, of a less deep brown hue, drier, less aromatic, destitute of efflorescence. It is said to be the produce of the wild plant, and is brought from St. Domingo.