STIMULANTS, AROMATIC, NARCOTIC AND MEDICINAL PLANTS 1 783 



1286 - Investigations about the Dying out of Peppervines in the Dutch East Indies.— 



II Pepper-cultivation in Banka. — Rutgers a. a. L-, in Mededeelingen van het 

 Laboratorium voor Plantenziekten No 19, with illustrations. Batavia, 1916. 



SUMMARY 



I. Pepper wa? introduced in Banka about 40 years ago by Chinese 

 from Riouw. Since 20 years the Bankanese (Malay natives in Banka) 

 have been planting pepper, imitating the Chinese. The export from Banka 

 amounted in 1913 to 2 ^'2 million guilders (over £ 200.000). 



II. Pepper-cultivation in the Dutch East Indies has two distinct forms : 

 on the one hand the cultivation, as practised since many centuries by the 

 Malay in Sumatra, a form of agriculture based on exhausting the virgin 

 soil and leaving it alone afterwards, on the other hand the cultivation, as 

 practised by the Chinese a refined form of horticulture. The pepper cultiva- 

 tion in Banka is of the latter type. 



III. The pepper-cultivation by the Chinese in Banka is marked by the 

 following characteristics : 



A. The pepper is grown at dead stakes without shadow. 



B. By careful tillage, big plant holes, big burAdng-trenches and the 

 use of first rate cuttings for planting vines are grown with an extensive and 

 vigorous root system. 



C. The pepper vines continue producing 20 or even 30 years as a 

 result of careful cultivation and abundant manuring with " burnt earth ", 

 oil-cakes, cattle manure, fish manure etc. 



D. The average production of each vine amounts to 3 kattie (= 4 

 lbs.) white pepper a year. 



IV. The pepper cultivation by the Bankanese is a cheap imitation of 

 the cultivalion by the Chinese. Tillage, burying of the young vines and 

 manuring are ttsually neglected. The vines are dying out within 9 years ; 

 the production of each vine is less than i kattie (— 1.3 lbs.) white pepper 

 a year. 



V. The following diseases and pests have been fotmd in Banka : 



A. Prematurely dying out as a result of planting in unsuitable soil. 



B. Prematurely dying out a? a result of insufficient care. 



C. The leaves are eaten by a beetle (Holotrichia spec.) 

 D.The stems are eaten by termites. 



E. The fruits are damaged by a small weevil, which eats small holes 

 in the unripe seed. 



F. On the leaves lice have been found. 



G. I,arvae have been found boring in the branches. 

 H. A cobweb fungus has been found on the leaves. 



VI. The peppervines of the Bankanese show a marked difference from 

 those of the Chinese : the last-named ones produce 4 lbs. white pepper a 

 year during 20 years, the fi.rst-named ones three times less during one third 

 of that time. 



There is no other reason for this difference than the careful cultivation 



