242 



species of heea, of which the fruits coloured well when ripe; 

 and a Mussaenda with an exceptionally large white sepal. 



Down the river towards the Kwala a thriving business 

 was being done in salting fish, for which it was claimed that 

 the best salt fish from the West Coast comes from Trang. 

 Higher up the river there is a fair trade in pigs and poultry 

 which largely supplies the Penang market. The area of 

 padi land is not extensive but is well stocked with native 

 cattle between the seasons; hardy, rather wild, powerful 

 little beasts, which make excellent draft cattle for which 

 there is a demand. 



The pepper gardens were a surprise. These were 

 worked in allotments by Chinese and were in a sound state 

 of cultivation. Most of the coast land — and some distance 

 in land too — the soil consists of a stiff sandy clay with 

 intersecting patches of laterite which at the site of the 

 gardens had become a large deposit of laterite gravel and 

 ferruginous clay and it was remarkable to see healthy pep- 

 per vines growing on some patches of little else than laterite 

 gravel. Starting with the nurseries; stock plants were 

 planted in shallow trenches, by this means the adventitious 

 rhizome (what Malays call the chaching i.e., the worm-like 

 underground root-stem) is not buried deeply and the grow- 

 ing point is uncovered and layered towards the edge of the 

 trench where a stake is fixed for its reception — as owing to 

 the wide spacing of the nodes of the rhizome a distance of 

 about two feet is necessary. As soon as this root-stem is 

 well attached to its stake the young plant is removed and is 

 then ready for permanently planting. No other cutting is 

 used in Trang and I do not think that stem cuttings grow 

 so symmetrically, or fruit so freely, as the basal or under- 

 ground stem. 



Trang pepper differs from all other varieties in its 

 shorter or more decided fruiting season. At the time of 

 my visit (April) I did not see a solitary catkin of flowers 

 or fruit. Like Arabian coffee the periodicities are pro- 

 nounced and the crop must be gathered when ripe, or lost, 

 As however the crop ripens during the dry season — and I 

 was so informed — there is little loss from rain damage. 

 (Growers of local pepper trill he aware that there is fre- 

 quently a eo it shier able loss as a consequence of heavy rains, 

 l)i) direct damage at the tune of pollination ; and fungus on 

 the catkins and fruits during exceptionally wet seasons.) 

 This pepper further differs from other varieties in being 

 the smallest fruited of all — the catkins are about 3 inches 



