BULLETIN OF THE 



No. 43 



Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry, Wm. A. Taylor, Chief. 

 December 16, 1913. 



AMERICAN-GROWN PAPRIKA PEPPER. 1 



By Thomas B. Young, Scientific Assistant, and Rodney H. True, Physiologist 

 in Charge, Drug-Plant, Poisonous-Plant, Physiological, and Fermentation In- 

 vestigations, Bureau of Plant Industry. 



HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 



Although the chain of evidence is not complete, it is probable that 

 the forms of red peppers going under the name of " paprika," like 

 other forms belonging to the genus Capsicum, came originally from 

 the warmer part of the American continent. The name " paprika " 

 seems to have been a local name used in Hungary and in the regions 

 to the eastward for an elongated, medium-sized pepper distinguished 

 by a deep-red color, rather thick, sweet flesh, and a very marked 

 pungency. 



From the evidence at hand it appears that the cultivation of this 

 form of red pepper was carried on at a much earlier date than can 

 be definitely associated with the name now so widely used. It is 

 probable that the first European occurrence of paprika was in Spain 

 or Portugal at an uncertain early date, perhaps not long after the 

 discovery of America. The activity of the Spanish traders in the 

 Mediterranean Sea and in the Orient probably led to the introduc- 

 tion of this, with other forms of the genus, into these regions. Ac- 

 cording to Augustin, 2 the development of pepper growing in Greece 

 arose out of this commerce with the Iberian Peninsula. With Greece 

 as an early starting point in southeastern Europe the cultivation and 

 use of this type of pepper seems to have spread to adjacent countries, 

 involving southern Russia and what is now Bulgaria. When the 

 Mohammedan invaders were expelled from the plains of central and 

 southern Hungary at the end of the seventeenth century these regions 



1 This bulletin sums up the results of an experiment having for its object the cultiva- 

 tion and marketing of red peppers of the type furnishing the Hungarian paprika of the 

 spice market. The American demand for this condiment has increased rapidly during 

 the last decade, until a large aggregate sum is now paid for this item for home consump- 

 tion. This bulletin tells how to grow, cultivate, and cure the crop and discusses the 

 economic as well as agricultural phases of the subject. — Wm. A. Taylor, Chief of Bureau. 



2 Augustin, Bela. Historisch-kritische und anatomisch-entwicklungsgeschichtliche 

 Untersuchungen iiber den Paprika. Nemetbogsan, 1907, p. 16. Inaugural-Dissertation,. 

 Universitat Bern. 



13575°— Bull. 43—13 1 



