80 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
[Aug. 1, 1^00. 
standards IV., V., and VI., and its teaching is en- 
couraged by a provision that " if agricultural chemistry 
be effioicntly taught, no other elementary science 
shall be required ui these Standards." I h^ve already 
drawn attention to the favourable opinion held of 
agriculture as a subject of instruction by the 
Soath Australian Board of School Inspectors, but in 
the report of the New Zealand Education Department, 
1889, I find the reverse of the picture. The Cliief 
Inspector, for instance, in his report, says, "The 
general science course, again being taken up in a 
good many schools where agricultural science was 
formerly preferred. This is a change to be welconitd, 
for the educa'.ive value of the two courses, and the 
facilities they offer for ixperimental illustration, are 
very unequal." In the same paragraph he further 
states that " with history treated only as a subject 
for reading, and the extravagances of the syllabus 
in geography, higher arithmetic, and agricultural, 
science rigidly pruned, there would be time to do 
honest educational woik all round, and little excuse, 
but incap city for not doing it," This iP, of course, 
a matter for debate among experts. I simply regard 
it from what might bs termed the ordinary rate- 
payers' point of view, and would say that the 
teaching of agriculture in the schools cannot be suc- 
cessful when the subject i^ regarded by the in- 
spectorate in the light these extracts indicate. Like 
the neighbouring colonies. New Zealand also has an 
Agricultural College at Lincoln, near Ohristchurch. 
This college is one of the affiliated colleges of the 
University of New Zealand, which giants ceitifi- 
catea and a degree (Bachelor of Science) in agiii;ulture 
to those students who follow the prescribed course 
and pass the necessary examinations. For the degree 
in agriculture a student must first pass the matri- 
culation examination, and attend two years at a 
university college and then twj succeeding years at 
this Agricultural College. The course of instruction 
at Lincoln extends over two years, and students are 
not received if under sixteen years of age. The 
students' time is also eaually divided between lectures 
»ud practical wsik as'foHows :— On one day the first- 
year students receive lectures, and the second-year 
Btudents work on the farm ; on the following day 
the second-year students receive lecture?, and the 
first-year students work on the farm, and so on. 
The subjects taught are agriculture, chemistry, 
general and agricultural ; botauy, general and prac- 
tical ; entomology, general and agriculiui al ; geology 
physiography, and meteorology ; veterinary science, 
applied mathematics and mechanics, land surveying 
and levelling, drawing, and book keeping. 
In addition to this general agricultural college, a 
dairy school, is about to be established, and ins- 
tructors from Canada have already been appointed. 
CULTIVATION OF PEPPER IN THE 
BOMBAY PUES[DENCY. 
A Note by J. W. Mollison, Esq.. M.li.A.C, Deputy 
Director of Agriculture, Poona. To inhicli is added an 
Account of Manures used in Spice Gardens. 
The two useful papers, by Mr. Mollison, given 
in these pages, are reproduced fiom the Bomhat/ 
Bulletin by the courteous permission of the Survey 
Commissioner and Director, Land lecoids and Agri- 
OuUure, Bjmbay. 
The commercial product here dealt with is the 
dried fruit of a vinelike plant which is found wild 
in the forests of .Malabar and Travancore. The plant 
is cultivated largely in Southern 'ndia, Siam, Malay, 
Cochin-China, and other tropical parts with moist 
hot climates. A rainfall of lOU inches or more ap- 
pears to be necessary. The plant is a large climber. 
The leaves are glossy, acute, cordate. The liowera 
are pendulous spikes and the fruit red berries, the 
size of peas in racemes. The berries are fleshy, 
The pulp covers a soft stone. The plants in clim- 
bing cling by adventitious roots very closely to any 
support. In the Kanora gardens pepper is trained 
on the supari palm trees. 
How Prop.^gated. — The plant is propagated by layer- 
ing or fiom cuttings. The former ia the preferable 
pi. in. When the betel palms have been seven or eight 
years permanently planted, pepper is planted at the 
roots of the trees. If a long healthy vine, frotp an 
established plant, can be stretched to reach the root of 
the betel palm, this vine is Ixyered in the leaf-mould 
manure which surrounds the roots of the palm. The 
pepper vine takes loot freely in this manure, and when 
it nas done so, is severed from the parent plant and 
trained on the palm s eni. Two or three vines are 
layered to one palm. The best months for propagating 
by layering or otherwise are -June or J uly. The young 
pepper plant grows rapidly. The main vine should 
branch freely into subordinate vines, so that a number 
of vines can be trained straight up the palm. They 
are fully secured to the stem by bands stripped from 
the sheaths of fallen leaves of the betel palm. The 
bands are tied about a foot apart, and in well-managed 
gardens are renewed annually at the top and twice a 
year at the bottom, but in a young plantation a band 
must be put on from time to time as the vines grow. 
The main and subordinate vines grow up the tree to a 
height of five feet or more per annum. Luxuriant 
growth and free branching are encouraged by heavy 
applications of good manure given annually for three 
years after plantation. Subsequently the pepper 
participates in the general cultivation given to the 
betel palnu and an application of manure is given for 
both crops every second year. The manure is heaped 
over the bared roots of the betel trees and pepper plants 
in a circle round the stems, and if plentiful a big b isket- 
ful is given to each betel palm, less being given if man- 
ure is scant. The basket is saucer-shaped, about 3 feet 
in diameter and 15" — 18" deep in the centre. The best 
manure for pepper, betelnut, and all other crops of the 
garden made from green leaves and twigs plucked or 
pruned in the monsoon and used as litter in the byres 
where b iffaloes and other cattle stand, and thence re- 
moved to a deep manure pit every day or second day with 
the dung and urine of the cattle. This manure is sntti- 
ciently decayed by the following March, and is applied 
in that month or in Ani il. The pepper plants in an 
established plantation rise to a height of 15 to 20 feet. 
Throughout their whole length they send out horizontal 
branches which are generally about 18" long. The 
foliage in healthy plants is from the ground upwards 
fairly dense, but in an established plantation some of 
the older vines die. Then the foliage becomes less 
dense unless the plants are renewed by new layers. A 
plantation is in bearing three or four years after it ia 
started, and if the old vines as they get worn out are 
at once replaced by new layers, the plantation should 
keep in vigorous growth and bearing for a long period. 
The flowers appear in July and August and the berries 
are ripe in March. The yield depends upon liberality 
in manuring and careful management, also upon the 
rainfall. The rainfalls of June and July are important 
as these cause the plants to produce many flowers, bat 
if the rains come in heavy i<owiipours subsequently the 
infl jrescence may be destroyed before it fairly sets. 
If there is a long break after the first rains the flowers 
may wither. With light showers, however, a full crop 
may be expected. 
Its Yield. — The vines on one palm when in full 
bearing yield in a good season about 1,000 clusters 
on an average. The clusters vary in size; but 1,000 
should yield about 7 seers of dried pepper (a seer*= 
24 tolas). 
The plants, the flowers, and the fruit are delicate 
in the sense that they are damaged by rough handling. 
Therefore ladders are used when the vines are bound 
to the palms and the berries plucked. The lad 'ers 
are straight single bamboos, with the alternate side 
branches cut off about a foot from the stem, Tnese 
provide the steps of the ladder. A wooden hook is 
rigidly attached at the top end of the ladder and 
* 1 Bombay 8eer='71b. 
