90 The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



TEA SHIPMENTS FROM CEYLON. 



Matale E., July 12th. 

 Dear Sir, — Can you inform your readers : 



1. Under what heading, if any, tea from 

 India, and sold in the local market, appears in 

 the Chamber of Commerce export table when 

 the tea is re-shipped? 



2. What quantity of tea was shipped from 

 Ceylon in June ? 



3. How much of it was Ceylon grown ? 



4. What is the estimate for July shipment ? 

 — Yours, etc., 



INTERESTED. 



I. We are unable to answer No. 1. Neither the 

 Customs nor th9 Chamber of Commerce returns 

 show this, though it is well-known that teas from 

 India are brought here and sold for export in 

 the public market weekly, such sales in June alone 

 including some 3,324 chests and 518 packages 

 according to Messrs. Forbes & Walker's Circular. 



No. 2.— The export of tea from Ceylon in June 

 was 19,667,102 lbs. of black tea and 672,993 lbs. 

 of green, total 20,340,095. 



No. 3. — Vide answer to No. 1. 



No. 4. — The estimate of shipments to the 

 United Kingdom for July is 9| to 10J million lb. 

 There is no official estimate for other coun- 

 tries, but these may take about six million lb. — 

 Ed. CO.] 



PEPPER. 



There are three principal kinds of pepper- 

 black, white and red. They are divided into 

 about 40 varieties of black, and 30 of white, and 

 25 of red. Black pepper is the green or unripe 

 fruit of the pepper vine. It grows in clusters, 

 very similar to currants, and is picked twice a 

 year, dried either by the sun or artificial heat, 

 and then shipped — handled about the same as 

 raisins. When a pepper berry is cut in two you 

 would note that there are three distinct parts, 

 outer or black coat, second or gray coat and 

 white center. The best grades are those which 

 are nearly or entirely solid, thereby containing 

 the most white meat. The low grades are almost 

 like little empty puff balls. You can crush the 

 berries between the fingers. These low grades 

 come principally from the province of Acheeu, 

 in the Island of Sumatra. Although owned by 

 Holland, the Dutch have never been able to 

 conquer the natives, who still have their own 

 rulers and are masters of the land, except a 

 narrow strip on the coast. Naturally the me- 

 thods of cultivation are very "crude and the dry- 

 ing is done on the ground, and not much care is 

 taken when shoveling that pepper into bags to 

 leave behind sand, stones, and other dirt that 

 happens to be there. Acheen is an important 

 part of the crop, so the European traders 

 have established standards whereby we have 

 four grades : — 



The "A" grade weighs 4 lb. 13 oz. to the gallon. 



The " B '' grade weighs 4 lb. 5 oz. to the gallon. 



The • ' C " grade weighs 3 lb. 13 oz. to the gallon. 



The "D " or lowest grade, weighs only 3 lb. 5 

 oz. to the gallon. 



Of course, the poorer qualities are lighter ones 

 and these fill up a gallon measure with the least 

 weight. These several classes are made by im- 

 mersing pepper in water. The best, or ' A ' 

 grade type, sinks to tbe bottom, while the 

 poorest or 'D ' grade floats on the top and is 

 skimmed off. The intermediate grades, 'B' and 

 'C,' are mixtures of the best and poorest in dif- 

 ferent proportions. When the best pepper is 

 ground a light gray powder is the result, while 

 the poorer kinds yield a dusty black powder. 

 The best known good pepper is that coming from 

 Singapore. It is grown by Chinese or Malays 

 and away from the influence of civilisation. It 

 is dried ove-_- smokey fires which gives it a flavour 

 by which this kind is recogaised. 



White pepper is not a natural product. To 

 get it, the pepper berries are allowed to ripen 

 thoroughly. During their later growth the black 

 skin becomes loosened. When the crop is harves- 

 ted it is all put into water to remain several days, 

 being stirred around at intervals. The stirring is 

 done often underpressure to hasten the process. 

 This combined stirring and pressing is accom- 

 plished by having bare-footed natives walk 

 around in vats. This causes the pepper skins 

 to fall off more or less, so that when eventu- 

 ally dried it is practically free from its black 

 covering and white pepper is the result. The 

 practice of afterwards using bleaching powders 

 has been done away with. There is quite a 

 little pepper substance lost by the process, as 

 the shell or outer black part possesses much 

 pungency and considerable aromatic quality, 

 besides pepper is at its best condimentally 

 before it ripens. The fact has lead to an im- 

 proved process, namely decorticating. By it 

 the better or heavier varieties or black pepper 

 are changed to white by mechanical means. 

 The manner of doing this is by suitable machi- 

 nery, to keep the berries in contact with a 

 revolving stone, which at every turn scrapes 

 off a bit of the shell and in the end there is 

 left the smooth, round, white hearts of the 

 berries. When these hearts, or centres, are 

 ground, the result is a pepper almost pure 

 white. This decorticated pepper found instant 

 favour with chefs and stewards as a seasoning 

 for potato salad and mayonnaise dressings, be- 

 cause its use did not leave in those things the 

 little disfiguring black specks which are a part 

 of black pepper or ordinary white pepper. 



Red pepper grows in every part of the world 

 except the North and South Poles and Tam- 

 many Hall. The hottest kinds, however, come 

 from the tropics. It is there that real concen- 

 trated Hades is raised in the form of a small 

 narrow pod from Mombassa and Zanzibar. 

 These grow wild in the swamps in the interior. 

 The climate back from the sea coast is fatal to 

 white men, so again we have a commodity that 

 is unimproved by civilisation. It is quite a 

 job to grind these pods. They are tough, oily 

 and very irritating to the miller and his work- 

 men. The powder from these is what is gener- 

 ally known as cayenne or red pepper.^ Cayenne 

 pepper comes from | Natal, South Africa. The 

 quantity produced is so small that it very sel- 

 dom if ever is exported. Other kinds are pro- 

 duced in India, West Indies, Japan and Mexico 

 and Texas. — American Grocer. 



