Aug, 1, 1900.] THE TROPICAL 
Aa?vICULTURIST. 
secures it to the palm above the level of the tallest 
pepper plant?. The ladder is slightly inclined in a 
certain direction when in proper position aod then 
can be safely used as it cannot well slip. 
How Plucked. — The bunches are plucked by hand 
and placed in an oblong cane basket slunK horizontally 
behind the workman by a rope round his waist. 
The rounded ends of the basket project a little on 
either side so that the basket can be conveniently 
filled by either hand of the workman. When plucked 
all the berries in a bunch may be equally and fully 
ripe, but ordinarily the bunches are plucked when 
the berries are mostly green and just changing in 
colour. The berries may or may not be sorted as 
they are plucked. If they are sorted those fully ripe 
are separated. These are soaked in water for seven 
or eight days or heaped, so that the pulp ferments and 
then rubbed by hand or on a coarse cloth if the 
quantity is small or trampled under the feet of coolies 
if large. The pulp is thus rubbed off the inner •' stone." 
The stone furnishes the white pepper of commerce. 
The pulp is completely removed by washing in 
baskets in running water. The pepper is then dried 
by exposure to the sun for about a week. This has 
also a bleaching effect, and the pepper becomes pale- 
grey or pale-drab in colour. It can be bleached a 
whiter colour by chemical agency. This white pepper 
is only prepared to a limited extent in the Kanara 
forests. The chief product is black pepper. It is got 
from nnsorted berries which are heaped up for four 
days. The green berries then get softer and change 
colour, and the pulp of all is more or less squashed. 
Then the berries are spread out and diied. The skin 
and part of the pulp adhere as a dry, dark-coloured 
wrinkled covering to stones and the pepper is black 
in appearance. White pepper is worth BIO to 11 per 
maand. Black pepper is worth R7 to 8 per maund. 
Manures used in Kanara Spice Gardens. 
The owners of spice gardens in Kanara depend 
chiefly upon leaf-mould for manure. They have never 
used manure of any other description and have no 
faith that ordinary cow-dung manure, oilcakes, or 
other concentrated manures would serve thier purpose 
equally well. They consider that the best leaf-mould 
manure is got from the green leaves and small succulent 
branches of certain trees which during the monsoon 
are used as litter under the feet of cattle tied during 
night and the greater portion of the day in sheds. 
Thia litter is freely used— five large head-loads 1 eing 
brought daily for above twelve cattle. The litter 
having absorbed the urine and dung is removed daily 
or every second day and put in square pits which 
are generally about 8 feet deep. These pits ars dug 
in situations where they catch the whole direct rainfall, 
which is very heavy, and possibly also a good deal 
of drainage water from higher levels. The subsoil 
is very retentive, and there is probably not much 
drainage through the subsoil from the manure pits, 
but the contents of these pits must be continuously 
wet during the monsoon. For each acre of garden 
an owner would like to have four cattle. He owns 
always a milch buffalo or buffaloes, but keeps no 
work cattle as all the garden babour is manual. If 
he does not own sufficient cattle, he hires them, 
feeding them gratis for the value of the manure 
produced. The hiring of cattle is a common practice. 
They are chiefly fed on dry grass which is of very 
inferior description. They probably also eat part of 
the litter as some of the leaves used are liked by 
cattle. Milch buffaloes get safliower cake or cotton 
seed, toth imported from Hubli DhyrvviCci District), 
and it is rather significant that the gardeners think 
leaf-mould got from buffalo litter is best for manure. 
Some owners feed cotton seed or cake to all their 
cattle in the monsoon, and I have no doubt they 
find it pays to do so, because ordinarily the cattle 
are, during this season, miserably thin and unhealthy. 
Many cattle are brought in from Dharwar, but only 
survive a few seasons in the feverish climate of 
Kanara. 
In the fair season the cattle get a good deal more 
(rjedojn, still they are kept in the el^e^s for probably 
about fifteen hours in the twenty-four and the sheds 
are littered freely. The rough grass is supposed to 
be given as fodder, but is spread all over the floor 
in the sheds and the cattle eat only a small proportion 
of it. Again, at this season dry leaves are collected 
and also used as bedding. But the gardeners think 
dry fallen leaves poor stuff and discount the value 
of such as manure. The manure put in the pits in 
the hot weather has a full year to decay, the manure 
being used always in February and ftlarch. That 
which is made daring the monsoon has less time to 
decay, and the gardeners attach particular value to 
the green leaves and twigs of certain trees collected 
during the monsoon because such decay very quickly. 
Such leaves are generally large and fleshy and are 
muoli more easily collected than smaller ones. A 
man can collect and carry to the cattle shed five 
head-loads per day. The leaves and branches of other 
trees are also held in high esteem for leaf-mould, be- 
cause the manure produced has the reputation of des- 
troying insects and grubs which would be harm-ful to 
the plants in the garden. The trees which provide 
leaves of the latter class have all unquestionably astrin- 
gent properties, and it is perhaps reasonable to believe 
that vegetable matter containing astringent resins or 
volatile oils might destroy insect life or that insects 
would not be likely to harbour in such material. 
The gardeners assert that since they have been denied 
the use of the leaves of certain reserved trees grubs 
and borers have become destructive to their cardamom 
plants and betel palms, these insects causing damage 
first at the roots. 
It is impossible for me to say what weight of 
manure is actually applied per acre. But judged by 
the eye, I think it is certain that the application is 
at least equal to a heavy dressing for ordinary garden 
crops. It probably approximates thirty ordinary cart- 
loads per acre per annum, perhaps more. 
The invariable practice is to put the leaf-mould 
immediately over the roots round the stems. The 
circle would be 3 or 3| feet in diameter. It is urged 
that the leaf-mould, if unprotected, would be washed 
away by heavy rainfall, and this is perhaps true, and 
in consequence a good deal of branohwood cut green 
in the hot weather, so that the leaves adhere, is used 
to cover the leaf-mould. The branohwool which is 
most desirable is such as will slowly decay and has 
astringent properties, i.e., has the power of keeping 
destructive insects away. The branches of Fambe 
(Xylia dolabriformis) and Nelli {Phyllanthus Emblica) 
have the two qualities referred to in a special degree. 
The branchwood used does not readily decay. It 
affords considerabl protection to the leaf-mould. A 
year after it is applied the leaves have decayed and 
the branches are partly rotten, still they would break 
the force of heavy rain. It might be urged that a 
covering of soil over the leaf-mould would be sufficient 
protection, especially as the sail of these gardens ia 
of a decidedly adhesive character. It is possible that 
this adhesiveness would tend to exclude air and 
moisture from the leaf-monld and prevent it serving 
its purpose as manure. But I do not believe such 
would be the case. At Bassein in the Thana district, 
with a rainfall as heavy as that in Kanara, the manure 
given is put round the roots of the plantains, betel- 
vines, and other crops much in the same way as at 
Kanara and protected by a covering of soil. The soil 
is, however, a light alluvial sand and the manure ia 
not washed away. The manure used at Thana is cow- 
dung manure and castor-cake, chiefly the latter, and 
it is given in several applications every year. The 
question is, can a manure of this class be economically 
substituted for a portion at least of the very heavy and 
very expensive dressings of leaf-mould now applied. 
I consider that the leaf-mould manure is expensive, 
even although its production requires only laoonr ia 
collection and the keeping and feeding of cattle. 
Castor-cake and safflower cakes are produced on ft 
large scale in the Dharwar district and are obtainable 
at very moderate rates by the Kanara gardeners. It 
might, therefore, be advisable to experiment with these 
naanares aud prove their eSwt.— Agricultural Led^erl 
