November t, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
355 
with fi no mould and earth. As tin- vine., i;row tli-y 
must be tied up to the tree! In the hot season they 
require watering. At the commoneemcnt 0? the uext 
rainy season, leave;*, ashen, dung, ku., must be put 
near their roots aud fresh euth thrown up. The 
pepper viue begins to bear at five years of 
age. In four years more it is in full bearing. 
An ordinary tree will produce 20 lb of pepper, and a 
good one as much us 30 lb. 
The second method, i, e., of opening large planta- 
tions, is as follows: — A hill-side with an eastern 
aspect and gentle slope is selected. The land is 
cleared of its jungle about April, aud burnt. Th" 
ground is then hoed, and steep slopes are convened 
into terraces which is very essential to keep the 
surface soil from being washed off by rain. After a 
few freshes, just beforo tne regular monsoon begins, 
hill-rice, dholl, and cotton are sown broad cast. About 
the middle of June, set in plantain trees at a dis me 
of 8 feet apart, and plant Erythrina branches al a 
distance of about 15 ft. apart, or, say at the rVcof 
200 trees to an acre. Somet mes 300 tre-s are also 
planted, but it. is believed that pepper vii os would not 
beat well when planted close together. Too K. vthrini 
branches should bo from 0 to 12 ft. long. During 
summer these trees must be watered, if they have 
not taken sufficient hold in the toil to take rare of 
themselves. When the monsoon has full.- sot in, 
preparations should eoninv nee for regular plai. ting of 
the vine. There are two ways adopted by the 
planters. Some people take (i or 7 cuttings, each a 
cubit in length, and put them in a basket wuh tin ir 
upper end sloping towards the tree. The basket is 
then filled with earth, and buried in the ground 
at the foot of tho tree. Between the middle of 
October and the begiuning of November the earth 
round tho basket is dug; and, as a manure, dry leaves, 
grass, and cow-dung are put round the vines. Some 
people plant the cuttings without any basket. It has 
been fouud by experience that the "basket-system" 
prevents many accidents to which the young shoots 
are liable. Jietween October and November the vines 
must be manured, and tied up to the tree until they 
are six feet high, after which they are able to support 
themselves. After the third year the plantations are 
• lug up; and twice a year, at the beginning of the 
8. W. and X. E. monsoon the whole plauta'ions must 
be hoed, aud dried leaves and grasses put as manure. 
In four or five years the vines begin to benr pepper. 
In the sixth jear they yield a full crop, and continue 
to (Jo (TO ior lo' or 20 years, when the Erythrina dies, 
and must bo replaced by a new branch ami new vines. 
The pepper vine is liable to be killed by droughts, 
especially when the N. E. monsoon fails. Attacks 
by grubs end inserts are seldom heard of in Malabar, 
between May and June, tho vines Mower, and by 
■January the fruit is fit for gathering. There is oidy 
one harvest i„ Malabar. The men who collect the 
crop, go up by ladders, and with their fingers twist 
Ofl the Amenta, Tho fruit is collected in baskets, 
and after placing them on the ground, rubbed with 
the feet to separate tho berries. Pepper is dried 
on in its, <>r, .in .. piece u f K round purposely mode 
smooth by washing with cow-dung and olay, For 
thr<-e day s they are spri ad out to the sun, but every 
night are gathored and taken into the house. It is 
Im In ie.l that the drying on mats is by far the best 
manner. A man cau daily pick, according to the 
nl. ui, dance of t bo crops from 20 to 30lb. The rubbing 
and drying is generally performed by women and 
children, It ,s , t, mated that the expenses of harvest 
curing, &c, cannot possibly exceed one-twelfth of 
the vain,- of pepper. The vims, on an Erythrina 
tree, (I (o 8 years old, will yield from .ItolUlb of 
pepper. Attempts have been made, with <■ mid. te 
Hiiee. sj, to grow vines against every tree found grow- 
ing in lonsts where a moist soil i« met with — 
M uUBJcsn i s. -Ceylon Independent.'' 
BM8ILAQB IN INDIA. 
[The following is important as sho«ing that rood 
"Huge can bo mudo oi mnua grass:— En. T. A.] 
Mr. S. AVilliam Hockins writes from Vayitri, 
"VVynaad : — 
It is dillicult fo give a reason for your correspon. 
dents fal lute With his silo, as he gives no detail as to 
how or when it was made. Very probably it was 
made of too old or too dry grass. Silage must be soft 
and full of juice, with a pungent colour, sweet or sour 
for cattle to take to it, and must therefore be made 
of succulent grass. It is, I believe, possible to make 
silage of the common bracken fern ; and land, which 
was formerly considered useless in the Highlands of 
Scotland, is now being taken up for silage farms. This 
sort of silage can, however, only he made of quite young 
and tender fern, and much that was made at first 
was uneatable because the fern was old anil tough 
when cut. Similarly old Mana grass or old spear 
grass could not be made into silage, the first being 
nearly alt flower stalls which dry into uneatable sticks 
and the second containing 75 per cent, of silica, besides 
being very tough with sharp edges- Oattle will, 
however, eat both spear and Mana grass within one or 
two months of i he young shjots appearing after a burn, 
and will soon kill these if graziers are allowed to 
graze them daily from April or May when the First 
throw up young shoots. I should be sorry to try the 
txperimeut of feecing cattle on silage made exclusive- 
ly of spear grass, for though they would no doubt eat 
i! il in ide only of young shoots, they would probably get 
li t le nourishment from it. Young Mana grass shoots 
will make very good ensilage. I made some last 
October from young shoots about 18 inches long, 
which was so sweet and good that we could not fill the 
lueding troughs quickly enough as the cattle emptied 
tuem so rapidly. Eubilage made in the monsoon from 
Mana grass three to four feet long, without flower 
stalk-, turne I out sour ensilage, but the cattle ate it 
rosdily— in fact, as lon^c as there was a strong smell of 
fermentation it s erne 1 attractive to them though very 
offensive to human beings. 
Much better ensilage can, howev- r, be made of 
smaller grass called by the Oanarese, Marawally Hullu, 
which on good grass land generally grows up with the 
common Mana grass, aud whore that has been killed by 
grazing, takes its place. This grass attains a height 
of from 2 to 3 feet, does not grow up so soon as 
Mana grass, which ought to be cut first in June or 
July when labour is usually scarce, and if it will 
stand grazing could be grazed till August, then 
allowed to grow up ami cut in October or November. 
It has an ear like a small barley, and the leaves are 
on tbe flower stalk. Ensilage cannot be made of this 
or any grass unless it is green and succulent when cut. 
I cut some Marawally grass last year in December to 
January, which had been grazed till August, but it 
got so dry from the land wind and sun before I could 
get it cut that it made poor ensilage, and though I 
made the rest into hay, which the cattle ate to save 
themselves from dying, they did not seem to be able 
to cat enough, aud got decidedly poorly. M'hen once 
tbe land wind begins, even growing grass withers so 
quickly, that it is little good for either hay or ensilage, 
and I think it is very likely this may be the cause of 
yonr correspondent's failure. A neighbour of mine 
:n Is hist rate ensilago from Mana and Marawally 
grass in September to October last year, but the grass 
land irom which these were cut was well covered with 
trees, aud all tbe flower stalks were picked out beforo 
the grass was put into the pit. This was sweet, and 
greedily eaten by the cattle. Another neighbour has 
■ stablished guinea grass on ell worn-out patches of 
coffee on his estate, and when I saw the grass in 
August last year it was from .'i to ti It. high. The better 
the grass from which the ensilage is made the better, 
of course, is the resulting fodder, but I am satisfied 
that from either Mana grusn cut young, say ;j cuts • 
yi ar at intervals of 2 months from June or July, or 
Marawally Hullu. quite good enough ensilage can bo 
ma le to save cattle from starvation in the hot weather, 
1 Htall-fed 10 head of cattle from November to April 
bi»t S'.ir, — a period ot si \ months, and li stv.rvtew, 
though I picked out all tbe siiiHllmt and sirkhest 
, i'tle on the i slate for the experiment In fuel, 1 
' . u r In- 1 in , the small My ii' Irmitiei utile w re 
