PEPPEE, 



425 



Colonel Low, in Ms " Dissertation on Pinang," published at 

 Singapore some years ago, gives an interesting account of the 

 culture : — 



"Pepper was, during many years, tlie staple product of Pinang soil, tlie 

 average annual quantity having been nearly four millions of pounds ; but 

 previous to the year 1810, the above amount had decreased to about two-and-a- 

 half millions of pounds, which was the result of the continental system. 



The price having fallen at length to three and three-and-a-half dollars the 

 picul — with only a few occasional exceptions of rises — the cultivation of this 

 spice was gradually abandoned, and the total product at this day does not ex- 

 ceed 2,000 piculs. The original cost, when pepper was at a high price, together 

 with charges of transporting it to Europe, amounted to £36,357 for every five 

 hundred tons, and the loss by wastage was estimated at £5, 405. In 1818 there 

 remained on the islanr't' 1,480,265 pepper vines in bearing, and the average 

 value of exports of pepper from Pinang, including that received from other 

 places, was averaged at 106,870 Spanish dollars. 



As might have been foreseen, the fall of prices has so greatly diminished 

 the cultivation of pepper to the eastward, that a reaction is likely to take place ; 

 and has in fact partly shown itself already. Some Chinese in Pinang and 

 Province "Wellesley seem to be preparing to renew the cultivation. There is 

 abundant scope for the purpose on both sides of the harbour, and every facility 

 is at hand for carrying it on. 



The pepper plant or vine requires a good soil, the richer the better, but the 

 red soil of the higher hills is not congenial, the Chinese think, to it. The un- 

 dulations skirting the bases of the hills, and the deep alluvial lands, where not 

 saturated with water, or liable to be overflowed, are preferred. 



The Chinese have always been the chief cultivators, and when the speculation 

 flourished they received advances from the merchants, which they paid back in 

 produce at fixed rates. 



When pepper was extensively cultivated on Prince of "Wales Island, the 

 European owner of the land had the forest cleared by contract, and the vines 

 planted by contract, and when the vines came into bearing the plantation was 

 farmed to the Chinese from year to year, on payment of a specific quantity of 

 pepper. Any other plan would have ruined the capitalist, as the culture is 

 almost entirely in their hands in the Straits' Settlements, and they will not 

 work so well for others as when they are specially interested. 



The plants are set out at intervals, evert/ tvai/, of from seven to twelve feet, 

 according to the degree of fertility of the soil, so that there are from 800 to 

 1,000 vines in one orlong of land ; to each vine is allotted a prop of from ten 

 to thirteen feet high, cut from the thorny tree called dadap, or where that is 

 scarce, from the less durable hoonglai ; these props take root, thus aff'ording 

 both shade and support to the plant. The plant may be raised from seed pepper, 

 but the plan is not approved of, cuttings being preferable, as they soonest come 

 into bearing. The pits in which these cuttings are set should be a foot-and-a- 

 half square, and two feet in depth ; manure is not often applied, and then it is 

 only some turf ashes. However unpicturesque a pepper plantation may be, 

 still its neat and uniform appearance renders the landscape lively, and there 

 can be little doubt that the island has suff'ered in its salubrity since the jungle 

 usurped the extensive tracts formerly under pepper cultivation. 



When the vine has reached the height of three or four feet, it is bent down 

 and laid in the earth, and about five of the strongest shoots which now spring 

 up are retained and carefully trained up the prop, to which they are tied by 

 means of ligatures of some creeping plants. 



One Chinese, after the plantation has been formed, can take care of two 

 orlongs of land. The usual mode is this : — an advance i3 made by the capitalist 

 to the laborer for building a house, and for agricultural implements ; he then 

 receives two dollars monthly to subsist on, until the end of the third year, when 

 the estate or plantation is equally divided betwixt the contracting parties. 



The Chinese and even European cultivators used formerly to engage the 

 Chinese who had j ust arrived from China ; they paid ofi" their passage-money, 



