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SECTION VII. 



THE SPICES OF COMMERCE. 



Pepper is one of tlie most wholesome and useful of the spices. With 

 persons in ordinary health it has the effect of stimulating the stomach 

 greatly to the performance of its functions, and is peculiarly service- 

 able to persons who are of cold habit, or who suflfer from a weak 

 digestion. Used in moderation, pepper decidedly promotes the appe- 

 tite and digestion ; but its excessive use tends to vitiate the gastric 

 juice and injure the stomach, besides provoking inordinate thirst; and 

 this remark applies generally to all spices. 



Many of the natives of India esteem pepper as a stomachic, and 

 drink a strong infusion of it in water by way of creating an appetite. 

 They have also a method of making a fiery spirit of fermented fresh 

 pepper with water which they use for the same purpose. 



The varieties of pepper which enter into commerce are Pinang and 

 Singapore, Tellicherry, Sumatra, Malabar, Traug, Siam, and Cochin. 



The empire of Aclieen is the chief producing country for pepper. 

 It is, however, cultivated in various parts of tbe island of Sumatra 

 and at Bantam. The Malay Peninsula, where the pej)per vine was 

 introduced from Java, and which produced at one time about 

 4,000,000 lbs., now grows none. The culture, as far as quantity is 

 concerned, may be said to be almost restricted, at present, to the 

 east and west coasts of Sumatra ; the production, which used to reach 

 nearly 40,000,000 lbs. annually, has, however, greatly declined of late 

 years, but it is probable that when the civil wars are suppressed it 

 will again recover. 



It is impossible to arrive at any precise data with regard to the 

 crops. In 1872, 142,000 piculs were shipped to Pinang; in 1873, 

 105,000 ; and in 1874, 96,000. The blockade of the Achecn ports by 

 the Dutch cannot alone have been the cause of this decrease, else the 

 quantity shipped in 1874 would have been larger than in 1873. 

 Besides the shipments to Pinang, there used to be sent, before the 

 war, about 2,000,000 lbs. direct to Mediterranean ports. In esti- 

 mating the entire produce now at about 22,600,000 lbs. we are 

 not far wrong, which is more than 17,000,000 lbs. below the former 

 production. 



The pepper that comes to the Batavia market is received from the 

 Lampong islands off the Sumatra shores ; the quantity produced there 

 is estimated at about 23,000 piculs annually. The crop is plucked in 

 September and following months, therefore uj) to the end of January 



