VIII 
PEPPERS 
253 
Kelantan, 2,000 tons ; Borneo, Banjermasin, 12 to 1,500 
tons. Java, Bantam, 500 tons ; Siam, Chantabun, 1,000 
tons. 
In 1829 the Malayan cultivation had increased 
greatly. Milburn (Watt’s Dictionary^ p. 819) gives 
the following figures: Sumatra, 16,800 piculs; Bintang, 
Lingga, and other neighbouring islands, 12,000 piculs ; 
Malay Peninsula, 28,000 piculs ; Siam, East coast, 
10.000 piculs ; Borneo, 20,000 ; India, West coast, 
30.000 piculs (16 *8 piculs make a ton). 
The cultivation of pepper in Singapore and Johore 
increased to a very large extent after the founding of 
Singapore in 1822, the cultivation being in the hands of 
the Chinese, who combined its cultivation with that of 
gambir till about 1894, when, owing to the fall in price, 
and to the scarcity of firewood for cooking the gambir, 
the plantations gradually died out. A good deal still 
remains in Johore, however, and of late years (1909, 
1910) the cultivation has shown signs of returning. 
Names of Black Pepper. — Many of the European 
names for pepper are derived from the Sanskrit, Pipaly 
which seems properly to belong to long pepper. 
French, Poivre ; German, Pfejfer ; Latin, Piper ; 
Greek, TreVept, Peperi ; Hindu, Gulmirch, Filfilgura ; 
Bengal, Muri Chuong ; Tamil, Milagu ; Malay, Lada ; 
Arab, Filfiluswad ; Sanskrit, Maricha. 
CLIMATE 
Pepper is strictly a tropical plant, and seems to 
have been successfully cultivated only between latitudes 
20° N. and 20° S. It requires a heavy rainfall, and 
though a dry season of some duration does not appear 
to injure it, a very prolonged dry period, or too long 
exposure to sun, certainly affects it adversely. Long 
continued droughts, as Marsden ^ remarks, stop the 
vegetation of the vines and retard the produce. 
“ This,” he says, “ was particularly experienced in the 
History of Sumatra^ p. 106. 
