256 SPICES 



The mechanical composition of these soils is : 



C. Kelway Bamber (Agricultural Bulletin of 

 Straits Settlements, vol. vii. p. 581). 



In these stiff clay soils, weak in potash, manuring is 

 absolutely essential, and the Chinese use burnt earth, 

 which has been already described, and which is rich 

 in potash. Poor, however, as this class of soil is, some 

 of the best pepper in the world has been grown on very 

 similar soils. The fine pepper grown at Kamuning 

 Estate, in Perak, was cultivated in a considerably richer 

 soil old forest humus, rich in lime from the neighbour- 

 ing limestone rocks. But such soil cannot always be 

 met with. 



Where virgin jungle is procurable, the soil is 

 naturally richer and should be used, and in abandoned 

 plantations which have become covered with secondary 

 scrub of from three to ten years' growth, the plantation 

 may be successfully made. 



The ground is cleared, the forest felled, and when 

 the brushwood and branches are dry they are set on 

 fire, and when thoroughly burnt, the pepper is planted. 

 Such ground has, in addition to the humus, the potash, 

 carbon, etc., of the burnt forest, and this is very suitable 

 for the pepper. Owing, however, to the heavy rains, 

 much of the soluble constituents of the soil, as well as 

 the finer particles, are soon washed out, and manuring 

 in these soils (as treated of later) becomes absolutely 

 essential. 



According to Marsden, in Sumatra pepper throve 



