August i, 1888.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
i 1 1 
succeeded by green drupes which became red when 
ripe. They vvero gathered before ripening arid dried, 
the fleshy portion becoming wrinkled and black- 
When white pepper was to be made the berries were 
soaked in water, sometimes, it was said, in cow's urine, 
and the outer layer rubbed off. lilack pepper was 
manufactured by grinding the whole ol ihe dried 
grain ; white pepper, on tbe other hand, by grinding 
the decorticated berry. To meet the demand tor an 
exceedingly light coloured pepper, ihe outer layers of 
the seed were sometimes ground off, and only the 
nearly white kernel used. Ah the starch of which 
the Lerry was largely composed was largest in pro- 
potion in the centre, tbe pepper so made was defi- 
cient in pungency and flavour, and it was a nice 
question whether such treatment was allowable under 
tbe b'ood and Drugs Act. Nothing was indeed added, 
but the removal of the most valuable portion of the 
berry was akin to skimming milk. One of the 
constituents of pepper was an esi-ential oil, which 
could be obtained by distilling crushed pepper with 
water. Of this black pepper yielded 1-17 per cent., 
and white pepptr 104 per tent., and it had tbe 
smell of pi pper but not a strong taste. Its composi- 
tion was akin to turpentine. The perfume of pepper 
beii'g largely due to it, to obtain the best result the 
pepper should be fresh ground, or kept tightly closed. 
The custom of keeping pepper in castors with per- 
forated tops was u&scieutific. Little mills by which 
the pepper could be ground when required was the 
best method of obtaining it pure mid pungent. Other 
constituents were a resin soluble m caustic potash, 
and piperine, an alkaloid, the amount of which was 
very variable. In black pepper, from a recent ana- 
lysis, ilu percentage was 7 14 to tr62, and in white 
pepper (i'47. It was soluble in alcohol, and was said 
to be febrifugal, it being curious that its composition 
was imUntical with that of morphine. Other ingredi- 
ents were starch, which in b ack pi pper amounted to 
from 49 to 56 per cent, and in white pepper from 
77 to 85 per cent., and cellulose, which in white 
pepper ranged from 12 to 14 per cent, and in black 
pepper from 21 to 26 per cent. Under the head of 
impurities, Mr. Davies dealt first with the mineral 
ingredients of the ash. In black pepper this was 
generally due to impurities sdhering externally to the 
pepper seed, but except where sweepings had been 
added ought never to amount to more than 6 or 7 
per cent. Of vegetable adulteration, the first to which 
lie called attention was long pepper, made from the 
wikl plant Char kit Roxburghii, wbich belonged to tbe 
same natural order as pepper, and also contaiuid 
piperine, but in much smaller quantity. The essen- 
tial oil yielded by it was stronger in smell, and there 
could be no doubt of the injury caused to pepper 
by the admixture of even a small quantity of this 
product. Rice was added to pepper tor two reasons : 
first, to improve the colour by whitening it, and 
so gratifying tbe taste for white pepper, and secondly, 
to increase the hulk with a cheap adulterant. Fortu- 
nately the angular starch grains of rice, being twice 
the diameter of pepper starch, rendered its detec- 
tion easy. Spent ginger, wbich had also been used, 
was likewise easily detected for the same reason. 
They would bo well acquainted with the history of 
the ingenious adulteration known as pepperette or 
pbivrette. The dir-eovery of it by Dr. Campbell- 
Brown, and the publication by him of a method 
for its detection, had stoppod what might have been 
a very successful swindle. The gnat advantage of 
this adulterant was ib.it ,t contained uostarch grannies, 
and the eel's which composed it were almos' identi- 
cal in form with those ol the cortical laytrs of pep- 
per. Only bj careful comparison of the two under 
ordii ary po urized light could they bo distinguished. 
The olive stems In.rn wbich tin- udiilteiant wis 
nude possessed llrilbi 1 | Ullgi nrv III)'" tlavoiir I nib r 
the iniiriiM-npe the centre ol the cells of bleached 
popper wps light coloured, like the centre of the 
cells of the ground olive stono; hut when polarised 
light was usid there was a ihtferencc iu colour, the 
nine tills bciiiR light bluish, arid tbe pepper 
yellowish.— I'httrniaceutieal Journal. 
SERICULTURE IN CEYLON: 
This Matale Agki-Horticultuual, Association. 
MR. nlSKYKS ON THE INTRODUCTION OF SERICULTURE. 
The Chairman said tbe meeting would now pro- 
ceed to the business on the paper, and called upon 
Mr. Reeves to propose the resolution which stood 
in his name, viz. :— "To consider the introduction 
of Sericulture into the district of Matale." 
Mr. E. Goudon Reeves who was well received iobo 
and said : — Gentlemen, — I do not intend to detain jou 
very long, neithtr do I propose to deliver a lecture on 
the history and progress of Sericulture. What I 
propose to do is to bring forward aiguments in favour 
of an attempt to introduce silk growing, and explain 
my scheme for starting this industry. In the first 
place I should state that my principal object is to 
introduce silk culture as a native lnuuBtry. Iu what 
follows therefore 1 shall speak of the silk induary 
only as it may affect our native population. Now it is 
well known that the Sinhalese cultivator, the goyiya, 
with whom I purpose more especially to deal, has if 
not a great deal at least some unoccupied time on 
his hands. If he have a family the unoccupied time 
of the household collectively would be considerable. 
It is this at present wasted time that I wish to see 
turned to account for the benefit of the villager aud 
his family. Now later on I am going to ebarge the 
goyiya with being apathetic ; but it will be no con- 
tradiction if I now say that the goyiya has his spells of 
fairly hard work in which his family also shares; 
therefore in searching for an industry to employ bis 
leisure hours any that would involve much labour 
would be out of the question. What is required is 
some light occupation in which the women and children 
of the household would take the principal part ; what 
is also necessary is emplojment of a thoroughly 
simple character and one which could be engaged in 
at home and in all weathers,— an industry which, iu 
fact, would afford continuous, easy ai.d remunerative 
employment. I believe that the silk industry meets 
these various requirements to the fullest degree. No 
hard labour is required, no skilled labour, it is 
simple in the extreme, all it demands is a certan 
amount of careful attention. Now I need not, I 
think, detain you with a whole string of arguments n 
favour of my proposal. I will only bring forwards 
few of those which 1 consider most to the point. 
It will be necessary in dealing with such a very 
practicul audience to prove in the first place that 
Ceylon possesses a suitabie field for silk growing. 
There will be little difficulty iu this. We may notice 
the fact that Ceylon is the home of no less than seven 
silk-producing moths, and that tbe few experiments 
made, notably that carried out by a member of this 
Association, Mr. Alexander Ross, prove that silk pro- 
duced in Ceylon need be second to none in quality and 
strength. 
The speaker thou proceeded to read the report of 
the samples sent to the Manchester Jubilee Exhibi- 
tion, and reports from the best silk-producing coun- 
tries, such as New South Wales, Victoria, South 
Australia, Natal, Cyprus, etc. 
Mr. Reeves continuing said : — I think you will al- 
low that these figures arc sufficiently good to justify 
a further attempt. The climate of Ceylon is regarded 
by oxperts as favourable. The present time has also, 
1 consider, its advantages for the introduction of this 
industry. An Association has recently been formed 
iu England (the Silk Association of Great Biitaiu 
aud Ireland) for the pr< motion of the silk industry 
aud the encouragement of the production of raw 
silks in India and Butish Colonics, 'ihe Presi- 
dent of that Association, Mr. Thomas \\ ardle, 
has been good enough to promise all the assistance 
he can afford in the furtherance of the proposals 1 
lay before you. We shall, therefore, be setting out 
under good auspices. As to further argumeuls, 1 
think, gentlemen, when we consider the advantages 
that would accruo to tho Smhaless villager by the 
gain of even a few rupees annually, and what is to 
my mind n more important factor iu the scluiuo 
tor his advancement tho gain of some economic 
dvautogu by souiu eiU'ti display of energy ou lni 
