XIV 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



April, 1 9 10 



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Will You Give a Home Test 



to Johnson s Under=Lac 



at our Expense? 



WR WANT 30U to know Johnson's Under-Lac by actual 

 proof and real test. One trial will convince you how 

 far superior it is to shellac or varnish. 

 How much simpler, more economical, easier and more satis- 

 factory to apply. 



Let us send 3'ou a bottle, free and prepaid, and our illustrated 

 booklet, "The Proper Treatment of Floors, Woodwork and Fur- 

 niture,'' which answers every question on the care, preservation 

 and beautifying of every wood surface — is full of valuable hints 

 and helps on home decorations. 



Johnson's Under-Lac 



Imparts a beautiful, brilliant and lasting finish to floors, woodwork and furni- 

 ture — over surfaces beiuc dressed for the first time, over dye stains, filler or 

 the bare wood: over an old finish of any kind. 



You know the fault of varnish. It is thick, sticky — dries slowly in a A 



mottled way, ^# 



Under-Lac dries evenly and quickly — but not too quickly, like shel- ^^ 

 lac which laps and crawls and dries before it is well on. Under- L,ac ^^ 

 is thin, elastic — dries hard in half-an-hour. Use it for ahj' purpose ^^ 

 for which you would use shellac or varnish. ^ S. C. 



Johnson's Under-Lac produces a splendid ^^/-wow^k/ finish. ^. / Johnson 



For Linoleum and Oil Cloth >^/ Racine, wis. 



It brings out the pattern to best advantage, giving a 5? /' ' accept your 

 finish as glossy as new; protects from wear and makes '^'^ -' ° , " f sample 

 cleaning easy. o^^ -'', °'J°''"^™,^ '-'"'"- 



The most economical because it goes farthest / /'. /-ac. Dettcr tiiamarii- 

 and lasts longest. Gallon cans, $2.50. Smaller o^^ / isli or shellac; dso Book- 

 cans down to half pints. Write todav for the ^d^ /' '"'• ^''""'" .*• "' ,• \ 

 samples and our book of Home-Beautifving .^ / ^«""' '° ^f"- ""^ *^"P'<^ ^"'' 

 Suggestions, Edition A. H. 3. Clip coupon /■,/ report results to my pauit 

 or take down address now. ,^ / "''aler. 



S. C. Johnson & Son / ^^^^ 



Racine, Wis. > ^'' "^ 



"The Wood Finishing Authorities" ; ^ - - 



Iron Fence That Lasts a Lifetime 



The Stewart catalog is mailed free I 

 on request. Over 500 designs tol 

 select from, ranging from the sim- 

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 most elaborate and ornate effects' 



fEcWARf" 



)IronFence^ 



!in iron fence and entrance gates. 

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THE STEWART IRON WORKS CO., 1726 Covington Street, CINCINNATI, OHIO 



Special designs created for any purpose and to harmonix>e with any style of architecture desired. Sketches submitted. 



PEPPER CULTIVATION IN INDIA 



THE pepper plant — Piper nigrum — 

 which produces the white and black 

 pepper of commerce, is a climbing 

 vine-like shrub, growing wild in the forests 

 of Travancore and the Malabar coast of 

 India. 



It is extensively cultivated in southwest 

 India, whence it has been introduced into 

 Java, Sumatra, Borneo, the Malay Penin- 

 sula, Siam, the Philippines, and the West 

 Indies. 



The use of pepper was known to the an- 

 cient Greeks and Romans as early as the 

 time of Alexander the Great, and at one 

 time occupied an important place in the 

 world's traffic, being a staple article of com- 

 merce in the early trade between Europe and 

 India before the days of cotton, tea and 

 sugar. The price of this Sjiice during the 

 Middle Ages was exorbitantly high, and its 

 excessive cost is said to have been one of the 

 inducements which led the early Portuguese 

 navigators to seek a sea route to India. 



Pepper is entirely tropical in its require- 

 ments, and seems to thrive best in a moist, 

 hot climate, with an annual rainfall of at 

 least 100 inches and a soil rich in leaf mold. 



The plant is a natural climber and will 

 cling to almost any support by means of 

 adventitious roots. It grows some 20 feet 

 in height, but in cultivation is usually re- 

 stricted to 10 or 12 feet. The native Kan- 

 arese, in the gardens of the southern district 

 of the Bombay presidency, train the pepper 

 vine to the "supari" palms. 



The leaves are glossy, broadly ovate, with 

 five to seven nerves, and grow opposite and 

 alternate to a pendulous spike 5 to 8 inches 

 long, containing 20 to 30 white flowers that 

 ripen into a one-seeded fruit, with a fleshy 

 exterior. This fleshy berry, covering a soft 

 stone, is about the size of a pea, and is at 

 first green, but in ripening turns red and 

 then yellow. 



The berry contains a resin, to which it 

 owes its hot, pungent taste, and a volatile oil 

 that gives off an aromatic scent. It has few 

 medicinal qualities, its principal use being as 

 a condiment. 



The white pepper is the black pepper de- 

 corticated by maceration and rubbing. The 

 plant produces fruit in three years, and is 

 probably at its best for the next seven or 

 eight years. It is claimed that there is a 

 difference between the plant grown from the 

 seed and the one raised from cuttings, the 

 former bearing fruit for several years longer 

 than the latter, though the pepper from the 

 plant raised from cuttings is said to be su- 

 perior in both quality and quantity, and 

 hence this method is more frequently 

 adopted. 



A single palm or tree sometimes sup- 

 ports eight or twelve vines, giving an 

 average annual yield in good seasons of 

 about one thousand spikes to the vines 

 on one palm. These spikes or clusters of 

 berries vary in size, but one thousand should 

 yield on an average five pounds of dried 

 pepper. An acre is reckoned to bear 2,500 

 plants, to cost about $20 in outlay, and to 

 yield a product of $400 when in its best con- 

 dition. 



Mr. J. W. Mollison, director of agricul- 

 ture at Poona, gives in a very interesting pa- 

 per an account of the cultivation of pepper 

 in the Kanara gardens of the Bombay presi- 

 dency. Of the two ways of propagating 

 the plant — by layering or from cuttings — 

 he claims the former is preferable. 



When the palms have been seven or 

 eight years permanently planted, pepper is 

 planted at the roots of the trees. If a long, 

 healthy vine from an established plant can 

 be stretched to reach the root of the palm, 

 I this vine is layered in the leaf-mold manure 



