556 



TTie Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



CHILLIES AS A CATCH-CROP. 



The demand for chillies or capsicums by natives 

 for local consumption is very large. They are used 

 both fresh and dry. The chief source of supply 

 of dried chillies in the Malay Peninsula is India, 

 whence very large quantities are exported to 

 Singapore and Penang. It seems absurd that in 

 a country like this we cannot grow all the chillies 

 we require for local consumption, but not only 

 have we, it seems, ever been able to supply a 

 sufficiency of dried chillies, for the demand, but 

 during the past two or three years fresh chillies 

 have been so scanty that the price had gone up 

 from 6 to 10 cents a catty to 40 to 50 cents a catty. 



The reasons for their scarcity in Singapore are 

 several. During the past few years, it is said by 

 the Chinese, that the weather has been bad, too 

 much rain at the wrong time, so the chillies 

 rot. This rot is due to 



A FUNGUS ATTACKING THE FRUIT 



of which I will give an account later, and no 

 doubt excessive wet would increase the develop- 

 ment of this pest.. Another reason for the scarcity 

 is the fact that large areas of ground which were 

 formerly vegetable gardens have been converted 

 into rubber estates. Chillies and other vegetables 

 could, of course, 



BE GROWN AS CATCH-CROPS AT LEAST IN THE 

 E4.RLY YEARS BETWEEN THE RUBBER TREES 



with benefit both to the trees and to the planter, 

 but somehow this is not done. The Chinese also 

 affirm that vegetables cannot be grown without 

 manure, of which they hold night-soil the best. 

 Objections have been raised to growing vege- 

 tables with night-soil anywhere near town for 

 sanitary reasons, and the result has been a 

 notable scarcity of vegetables, all of which are 

 now very expensive. Indeed, we are informed 

 such vegetables as pumpkins, brinjals, cabbage, 

 etc., are at prices which are prohibitive to the 

 poorer classes. With these cultivations chillies, 

 which also require in our poor soil a good deal of 

 manure, have also risen very high in price. 

 Vegetables, including chillies, are an absolute 

 necessity for the health of rice-eating peoples, 

 who require large quantities of them, and it is a 

 question worthy of study by those who are in- 

 terested in the health of the population as to 

 whether the failure of the vegetable supply does 

 not produce an insanitary condition which is of 

 considerable importance and possibly even grea- 

 ter than the risk from using night-soil on such 

 vegetables, at least as brinjals, pumpkins, beans 

 and chillies. The chillies cultivated are chiefly 

 the Capsicum frutescens, or Capsicum annuum, 

 the long cylindrical red fruit commonly known 

 as capsicums of the long Cayenne variety. 



There are a considerable number of varioties 

 of this plant, many of which are rather fancy 

 kinds, which are cultivated more as curiosities, 

 or from fancy, such as the black or yellow fruited 

 varieties, but for trade purposes the important 

 one is the long Cayenne. 



The bird's eye chilly, Capsicum Minimum, is 

 much used by natives also, but sufficient is cul- 

 tivated usually in their gardens or in waste 

 ground and it does not seem to form a vege- 

 table garden crop as the long capsicum does, 



though it would be easy enough to cultivate it 

 so. It is not popular among the Indian races, 

 and is chiefly used by Javanese and Malays. 

 It is, as is well-known, much more pungent than 

 the long Cayenne and is commonly used as a 

 pickle or for making a very hot sauce. 



For market-purposes the long pepper is the 

 one in demand, both fresh and dry, and for 

 making Cayenne pepper. 



The Capsicum is usually 



GROWN AS AN ANNUAL 



and replanted each year, but it can be continu- 

 ously cultivated for two or three years, the stems 

 and branches being cut back each year. They, 

 however, are useless after the secoud or at least 

 the third year and require replanting from seed. 

 They cannot be grown continuously on the same 

 soil, as they deteriorate, and consequently re- 

 quire rotating with other crops, such as brinjals, 

 beans, or some other annual ciop. This is the 

 way the Chinese usually grow them. 



In Singapore the soil in which they are culti- 

 vated is usually stiff clay, well worked up. If 

 procurable, manure, such as cow-dung, should 

 be worked into it, and burnt earth is added. 



The seeds taken from fresh-pods are soaked in 

 salt fish water, that is water in which salt fish 

 has been soaked. In this liquid they remain for a 

 week. They are then taken out and dried well and 

 mixed with soft earth. The object of these pro- 

 ceedings is to separato the seeds and free them 

 of pulp, so as to be able to sow them at a distauce 

 from each other in the seed bed ; otherwise they 

 would cling together and be planted in a lump. 



They are sown in a nursery bed and after fifty 

 days pricked off into the permanent plot. The 

 beds in the plot are fifty feet in length and three 

 feet in width, and a foot apart, so that the planter 

 can walk between the plants aad weed them. A 

 five-foot way runs between each block of beds. 



The soil of the beds is worked up fine and 

 banked up, and two holes are made on either 

 side of the bed about 1^ to 2 feet apart, giving 

 from 50 to 60 plants to a bed. Cow-dung is put in 

 each hole and the plants are planted therein and 

 soil raked over the cow-dung to the bases of 

 the plants. Liquid manure is given once a week, 

 or oftener. Urine is often used in the propor- 

 tions of three parts of urine to two of water 

 when the plants are young and two parts of 

 urine to three of water later. Pig-dung is also 

 used when procurable ; 



OVER-MANURING IS TO BE AVOIDED, 



but the plants can take a good deal of liquid 

 manure. The weeds have to be removed from the 

 beds from time to time. Plants commence 

 fruiting in three months and go on bearing for 

 seven more. The fruits are picked when fully red, 

 uuless green capsicums are wanted for pickling. 



Excessive rain is injurious, and often spoils 

 the crop to a considerable extent. The actual 

 cause of this is a fungus which attacks the pod 

 and which is most prevalent in continued rainy 

 weather. The fungus is a species of Gloeos- 

 porium (G. piperatum), a plant allied to, if not 

 the same as, the ripe sort of apples. It causes 

 brown spots of decay, firm to the feel, eventually 

 developing pinkish pustules, becoming black, 



