246 TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



PEPPER 



The source of the common black and white pepper of 

 commerce is the plant known botanically as Piper nigrum 

 of Ceylon and southern India. This plant is chiefly culti- 

 vated in Penang, Malabar, Sumatra, Ceylon, Java, Africa, and 

 the West Indies. The pepper plant is a woody climber with 

 alternate ovate, smooth leaves, and catkins of small flowers 

 opposite the leaves. When mature the catkins are yi inch in 

 diameter and 4 to 6 inches long. Each catkin bears about 50 

 berries or pepper corns. The plant is strictly tropical in habitat, 

 being cultivated about 20° north and south of the Equator. 

 It requires a heavy rainfall. The pepper plant is commonly 

 propagated by cuttings from the tips of the bearing vines. 

 The cuttings should be well rooted before planting. 



Pepper plants require some support during their growth. 

 For this purpose trees are preferable to artificial support. The 

 mango. Jack fruit, and Erythrma lithosperma are commonly 

 recommended for this purpose. Pepper begins bearing at 3 

 years of age and reaches full bearing at 7 years. The fruiting 

 life of the plant is from 7 to 15 years. If hardwood posts or 

 artificial supports are used, the planting distance may be 7 feet 

 apart both ways. At that rate the yield should be 2,000 pounds 

 of pepper per acre. Pepper berries are red when ripe but 

 turn black in drying. 



Black pepper is the ground berries with the outer covering. 

 If the outer covering is first removed by soaking in water 

 and rubbing, the resulting product when ground is white 

 pepper. In other words, white pepper is made from the rip- 

 ened seeds only. In preparing white pepper the fruit is al- 

 lowed to ripen more fully than for black peper. Black pepper 

 is more pungent than white pepper but the white pepper is 

 usually preferred in the trade. Pepper is perhaps most ex- 

 tensively used in the sausage-making and meat-preserving in- 

 dustries, while the table use of pepper is secondary from a 



