September, 1908. j 



245 



Miscellaneous Products. 



floor, allowing as much air to pass 

 through and over the fruit as possible. 

 In a few days all superfluous moisture 

 will have evaporated, and the dried 

 article can be packed away in jars. By 

 this mews roselles can be had in good 

 condition all the year round. All that 

 is needful, when required for use for 

 jam, tarts, etc, is to take the quantity 

 necessary and pour over the fruit a little 

 water, when it will absorb the moisture 

 and resolve itself into apparently fresh 

 fruit. The large grower has in this 

 method a certain way of keeping such 

 surplus fruit as may not be in immediate 

 demand, or which on account of low 

 ruling prices, he may not wish at the 

 moment to put on the market. Fruit 

 put up in this form might be success- 

 fully exported to the London market. — 

 Agricultural Neivs, Vol. VII, No. 159, 

 May, 1908. 



THE CULTIVATION OF PEPPER 

 IN SARAWAK, 



By J. Hewitt. 



For many years the cultivation of the 

 Piper nigrum has been one of the staple 

 industries of Borneo ; it was mentioned 

 by the earliest European travellers as a 

 valuable product of the country, and by 

 the end of the eighteenth century the 

 spice was so much cultivated that there 

 were said to be in Brunei no less than 

 30,000 Chinamen, of whom the majority 

 Avere pepper planters. 



The vine is not, however, indigenous to 

 Borneo, and it must have been introduced 

 at an early date by Chinamen or pos- 

 sibly by Indians. Of late years ax, any 

 rate the industry is entirely in the hands 

 of the Chinamen whom Nature has 

 endowed with a temperament particu- 

 larly suitable for this kind of agricul- 

 ture. For the successful growing of 

 pepper it is desirable that each indivi- 

 dual vine should receive constant and 

 careful attention, and accordingly the 

 celestial husbandman pets and cares for 

 his vines as if they were his children. 



With such an essential to success, 

 pepper growing does not commend itself 

 to the native of Borneo, whose " forte " 

 lies rather with fruit trees. 



The chief pepper growing district of 

 this country is in Upper Sarawak, but 

 pepper gaidens are also found on the 

 Rejang and Batang Lupar rivers, and 

 in fact in the neighbourhood of any port, 

 provided that suitable land can be 

 obtained. 



The site usually chosen for a garden 

 is on sloping ground which can be well 



drained, and they appear to pay as 

 much attention to the facilities for 

 draining as to the quality of the soil. 

 In fact, the soil of an average pepper 

 garden in Upper Sarawak is a stiff yel- 

 low clay of poor quality. Nevertheless, 

 the Chinaman, where possible, chooses 

 a soil which experience has shewn to be 

 most productive, and in Upper Sarawak, 

 for instance, he has followed the por- 

 phyry dykes ; a sandy soil is usually 

 avoided. 



Before entering into details concern- 

 ing its cultivation, perhaps it will be 

 well to mention very briefly a few of 

 the obvious features of this well-known 

 plant. 



The stem is climbing, becoming stout 

 and shrubby, and reaching a height of 

 ten feet or more ; the branches are 

 rooting at the rodes ; the simple leaves 

 are glabrous, petioled and coriaceous, 

 in size 5-7 inches by 2-5 ins., the upper 

 leaves being unequal sided; the flowers 

 are minute on numerous spikes several 

 inches long ; the fruit is small round 

 berries which are red when ripe. 



In most pepper gardens there are to 

 be found two varieties of vine, the small- 

 leaved and the large-leaved. The for- 

 mer, being more fruitful, is preferred 

 before the large-leaved variety, of which 

 there may be only a few representatives 

 in a garden'. On the large-leaved vine, 

 many of the leaves are quite like of 

 those of the other variety, but some few 

 are considerably larger. Presumably, 

 cuttings from small-leaved vines always 

 yield of that variety, so that if the 

 pepper gardeners seriously attempted 

 it, they could exclude the less fruitful 

 form altogether. 



Most gardens contain one or two 

 representatives of a third kind of vine, 

 the so-called male. This is indistinguish- 

 able from the small-leaved vine until the 

 fruiting season, when the 'male' pro- 

 duces only a small quantity of fruit. 



I have not been able to examine the 

 flower spikes of these ' male ' vines, 

 but presumably such would be found to 

 be unisexual, the male flowers predomi- 

 nating. The flower spike of an ordinary 

 vine is made up of numerous hermaphro- 

 dite flowers, each consisting of an ovary 

 capped by three tiny stigmas, and a pair 

 of small stamens ; the stigmas ripen 

 before the anthers. 



Some gardeners look with favour on 

 the ' male ' vines, and one man told me 

 that in case a garden had no ' male ' it 

 was customary to grow a Sireh (Piper 

 betle) vine to act as such ! However this 

 may be, it certainly is usual to find at 

 least one Sireh vine in each pepper 

 garden. 



