VIII 



PEPPERS 253 



Kelantan, 2,000 tons ; Borneo, Banjermasin, 12 to 1,500 

 tons. Java, Bantam, 500 tons ; Siam, Chantabun, 1,000 

 tons. 



In 1829 the Malayan cultivation had increased 

 greatly. Milburn (Watt's Dictionary, p. 819) gives 

 the following figures: Sumatra, 16,800 piculs; Bintang, 

 Lingga, and other neighbouring islands, 12,000 piculs ; 

 Malay Peninsula, 28,000 piculs ; Siam, East coast, 

 10,000 piculs ; Borneo, 20,000 ; India, West coast, 

 30,000 piculs (16*8 piculs make a ton). 



'-The cultivation of pepper in Singapore and Johore 

 increased to a very large extent after the founding of 

 Singapore in 1822, the cultivation being in the hands of 

 the Chinese, who combined its cultivation with that of 

 gambir till about 1894, when, owing to the fall in price, 

 and to the scarcity of firewood for cooking the gambir, 

 the plantations gradually died out. A good deal still 

 remains in Johore, however, and of late years (1,909, 

 1910) the cultivation has shown signs of returning. 



Names of Black Pepper. Many of the European 

 names for pepper are derived from the Sanskrit, Pipal, 

 which seems properly to belong to long pepper. 



French, Poivre ; German, P/effer ; Latin, Piper ; 

 Greek, Tretrepi,, Peperi ; Hindu, Gulmirch, Filfilgura ; 

 Bengal, Muri Chuong ; Tamil, Milagu ; Malay, Lada ; 

 Arab, Filfilusivad ; Sanskrit, Maricna. 



CLIMATE 



Pepper is strictly a tropical plant, and seems to 

 have been successfully cultivated only between latitudes 

 20 N. and 20 S. It requires a heavy rainfall, and 

 though a dry season of some duration does not appear 

 to -injure it, a very prolonged dry period, or too long 

 exposure to sun, certainly affects it adversely. Long 

 continued droughts, as Marsden 1 remarks, stop the^ 

 vegetation of the vines and retard the produce. / 

 " This," he says, " was particularly experienced in the 



1 History of Sumatra, p. 106. 



