254 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
year 1775 in Sumatra, when, for a period of eight 
months, scarcely a shower of rain fell to moisten the 
earth. The vines were deprived of their foliage, many 
gardens perished, and a general destruction was expected. 
But this apparent calamity was attended with a con- 
sequence not foreseen, though analogous to the usual 
operations of nature in that climate. The vines, as 
soon as the rains began to descend, threw out blossoms 
in a profusion unknown before ; old gardens which had 
been unprolific for two or three years began to bear, 
and accordingly the crop of 1776-1777 considerably 
surpassed that of many preceding years.” 
The necessity (as the Chinese have noticed) for 
protecting the roots in the open fields against excessive 
sun-heat by covering the ground with cut grass, or the 
refuse gambir leaves, and the healthier appearance of 
vines grown under light shade, among fruit trees and 
the like, also evidence the fact that pepper does not like 
continuous and excessive heat and dryness. It is a 
high-rooting plant, and its roots are very liable to be 
affected by excessive heat and dryness of the soil, which 
is often shown in neglected, exposed plantations by the 
sickly yellow colouring of the leaves. The rainfall in 
the Straits Settlements is heavy and continuous, being 
evenly spread throughout the year. In the great 
pepper region of the west coast of India the rainfall is 
also very heavy, from 70 to 100 in. a year. 
SOILS AND SITUATIONS 
All writers on pepper seem to agree that flat land is 
more suitable for pepper cultivation than the slopes of 
hills. The Chinese in Borneo and the Straits Settle- 
ments make a point of selecting flat spaces among the 
hills, in preference to the steeper declivities. Gentle 
hill slopes can be used, and even steeper ones if they 
are terraced. If the hills are too steep, they are apt to 
suffer from the heavy wash of the tropical rainstorms, 
and in the dryer seasons are liable to drought from the 
