302 SPICES 



CHAP. 



could easily be grown successfully. Formerly it was 

 extensively cultivated in Zanzibar, and in one of the 

 consular reports (undated), quoted in the book All about 

 Spices, we read that in one year 315,000 Ibs. were grown, 

 valued at 36,000 dollars. Later falls in price seem to 

 have caused the abandonment of its cultivation, for 

 Mr. Lyne, in July 1909, writes me, " Pepper is here, but 

 not cultivated." 



West Indies and South America. Though no 

 doubt pepper could be grown well and productively in 

 the New World, very little has ever been done in its 

 cultivation there. 



Mr. Hart writes (Kew Bulletin, 1894, 79) that the 

 pepper in Trinidad gave a good crop, and a crop of 

 200 Ibs. was harvested from some vines giving 2 Ibs. 

 each. Messrs. W. and D. Harvest report on the sample 

 that it was clean and bold, and resembled the better 

 qualities of Tellicherry black pepper, except that it 

 had rather more husk. The value at the date at 

 which it was prepared was 2f d. to 2^d. per Ib. ; but the 

 markers were then depreciated and an immense stock 

 had been received from the Straits Settlements. A 

 short time previously the Trinidad sample would have 

 fetched 5d. to 5jd. per Ib. 



In Jamaica, pepper plants fruited in 1897 for the 

 first time, but only two plants (Jamaica Bulletin, 

 December 1897). 



There seems to have been some difficulty about the 

 plant in Jamaica. Plants and seeds of good strains 

 were sent from the .Singapore Botanic Gardens on 

 several occasions, but they never appear to have done 

 well. 



USES OF PEPPER 



The use of pepper as a spice or condiment for . 

 flavouring dates from very early times. Its strong, 

 pungency and stimulative action on the digestive organs 

 made it very much in demand for cookery. JBlack 

 pepper is more pungent, and contains more of the 



