Chap. XXVI. PEPPER-CULTIVATION IN MALABAIJ. 453 



20 feet, the pepper is planted at tlieir bases, and soon thickly 

 covers the stem and festoons over the branches. The 

 pepper-cuttings or suckers are put down by the commence- 

 ment of tlie rains in June, and in five years the vine begins 

 to bear. Each vine bears 500 to 700 bunches, which yield 

 about 8 or 10 seers when dried. During its growth it is 

 necessary to remove all suckers, and the vine is pruned, 

 thinned, and kept clear of weeds. The vine bears for thirty 

 years, but every ten years the old stem is cut down and 

 layers are trained. It is an exceedingly pretty cultivation, 

 and, if it was not for the crests of straggling branches which 

 crown the vine-covered trunks, it would not be unlike the 

 hop-fields of Kent. 



The houses on the road were built of laterite, large and 

 comfortable like those at Calicut. We saw the people sitting 

 before their doors, busy with their heaps of pepper. When 

 the berries liave been gathered tliey are dried in the sun on 

 mats, and turn from red to black. The white pepper is from 

 the same plant, the fruit being freed from the outer skin 

 by macerating the ripe berries in water. Before reaching 

 Cannanore we passed over three or four miles of elevated 

 rocky land, without cultivation, and arrived in the canton- 

 ment late at night. 



In enumerating the localities where it is likely that chin- 

 chona-plants will thrive, the mountainous country in Mysore, 

 nortli of Coorg, including Nuggur and the Baba-Bodeen 

 hills, must not be forgotten. Nuggur consists of rounded hills, 

 from 4000 to 5000 feet above the sea, with peaks rismg as 

 high as 6000 ; and the adjoining Baba-Bodeen hills attain a 

 height of 5700 feet. The climate is exceedingly moist, and 

 at the town of Nuggm-, on the western side of the hills, the 

 rains last for nine months, dm-ing six of which they are so 

 heavy that the inhabitants cannot leave their houses. The 

 eastern side is drier and more level. North of Nuggur the 



