B6okI. agriculture IN ASIA. 167 



for contemplation. We shall notice these islands in the order of Sumatra, Borneo, the 

 Manillas, the Cclebezian isles, New Holland, New Guinea, New Britain, New Zealand, 

 Van Diemans Land, the Pelew isles, the Landrone isles, Caroline isles. Sandwich isles, 

 the Marquesas, the Society isles, including Otaheite, and the Friendly isles. 



1013. Sumatra is an island of great extent, with a climate more temperate than that of 

 Bengal, a surface of mountains and plains, one third of which is covered with impervious 

 forests, and a soil consisting of a stratum of red clay, covered with a layer of black mould. 

 The most important agricultural product is rice, which is grown both for home consump- 

 tion and export. Next may be mentioned the cocoa-nut, the areca-palm, or betel nut 

 tree, and the pepper. Cotton and coffee are also cultivated ; and the native trees afford the 

 resin benzoin, cassia or wild cinnamon, rattans or small canes (Arundo rotang) , canes for 

 walkingsticks, turpentine, and gums ; besides ebony, pine, sandal, teak, manchineel, iron 

 wood, banyan, aloe, and other woods. 



lOH. The pepper plant {Piper 7iigrum,Jig. 161 a.) is a slender climbing shrub, which also 

 roots at the joints. It is extensively cultivated 

 at Sumatra, and the berries exported to every 

 part of the world. According to Marsden 

 {Hist, of Sumatra), the ground chosen by the 

 Sumatrans for a pepper-garden, is marked 

 out into regular squares of six feet, the in- 

 tended distance of the plants, of which there 

 are usually a thousand in each garden. The 

 next business is to plant the chinkareens, 

 which serve as props to the pepper-vines, 

 and are cuttings of a tree of that name, which 

 is of quick growth. When the chinkareen 

 has been some months planted, the most 

 promising perpendicular shoot is reserved for 

 growth, and the others lopped off: this 

 shoot, after it has acquired two fathoms in 

 height, is deemed sufficiently high, and its top 

 is cut off. Two pepper- vines are usually planted to one chinkareen, round which the 

 vines twist for support ; and after being suffered to grow three years (by which time 

 they acquire eight or twelve feet m height), they are cut off about three feet from tlie 

 ground, and being loosened from the prop, are bent into the earth in such a manner 

 that the upper end is returned to the root. This operation gives fresh vigor to the 

 plants, and they bear fruit plentifully the ensuing season. The fruit, which is pro- 

 duced in long spikes, is four or five months in coming to maturity : the berries are at 

 first green, turn to a bright red when ripe and in perfection, and soon fall off if not 

 gathered in proper time. As the whole cluster does not ripen at the same time, part of 

 the berries would be lost in waiting for the latter ones ; the Sumatrans, therefore, 

 pluck the bunches as soon as any of the berries ripen, and spread them to dry upon mats, 

 or upon the ground ; by drying they become black, and more or less shrivelled, according 

 to their degree of maturity. These are imported here under the name of black pepper. 



1015. IVhite pepper is the ripe and perfect berries of the same species stripped of their outer coats. For 

 this purpose the berries are steeped for about a fortnight in water, till by swelling their outer coverings 

 burst ; after which they are easily separated, and the pepper is carefully dried by exposure to the sun ; 

 or the berries are freed from their outer coats by means of a preparation of lime and mustard-oil, called 

 *' chinam," applied before it is dried. Pepper, which has fallen to the ground over-ripe, loses its outer 

 coat, and is sold as an inferior sort of white pepper. 



1016. The betel leaf {Piper betle,Jtg. 161 b.) is also cultivated to a considerable extent. It 

 is a slender-stemmed climbing or trailing plant, like the black pepper, with smooth-pointed 

 leaves. These leaves serve to enclose a few slices of the nut of the areca palm (erro- 

 neously called the betel nut) . The areca being wrapped up in the leaf, the whole is covered 

 with a little chunam or shell-lime to retain the flavor. The preparation has the name of 

 betel, and is chewed by the better sort of southern Asiatics to sweeten the breath a;nd 

 strengthen the stomach ; and by the lower classes, as ours do tobacco, to keep off the calls 

 of hunger. The consumption is very extensive. 



1017. The areca palm {Areca catechu) grows to the height of forty or fifty feet with 

 a straight trunk, and is cultivated in the margins of fields for its nut or fruit, which 

 is sold to prepare betel. 



1018. Three sorts if cotton are cultivated, including the silk cotton {Bombax cciba), a 

 handsome tree, which has been compared by some to a dumb waiter, from the regularity 

 of its branches. 



1019. The live stock of Sumatra are horses, cows, buffaloes, sheep, and swine. They 

 are all diminutive. The horse is chiefly used for the saddle, and the buffalo for labor. 

 The wild animals are numerous, and include the civet cat, monkey, argus pheasant, the 

 jungle or wild fowl, and the small breed found also at Bantom on the west of Java, and 

 well known in Britain by that name. 



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