256 SPICES 
The mechanical composition of these soils is : — 
A. 
B. 
C. 
Fine soil passing 90 mesh . 
44-50 
26-00 
40-00 
Fine soil passing 60 mesh . 
' 32-00 
25-00 
33-00 
Medium soil passing 30 mesh 
6-50 
18-00 
8-50 
Coarse sand and small stones 
17-00 
31-00 
18-50 
100-00 
100-00 
100-00 
C. Kelway Bamber {Agricultural Bulletin of 
Straits Settlements, vol. vii. p. 581). 
In these stiff clay soils, weak in potash, manuring is 
absolutely essential, and the Chinese use burnt earth, 
which has been already described, and which is rich 
in potash. Poor, however, as this class of soil is, some 
of the best pepper in the world has been grown on very 
similar soils. The fine pepper grown at Kamuning 
Estate, in Perak, was cultivated in a considerably richer 
soil — old forest humus, rich in lime from the neighbour- 
ing limestone rocks. But such soil cannot always be 
met with. 
Where virgin jungle is procurable, the soil is 
naturally richer and should be used, and in abandoned 
plantations which have become covered with secondary 
scrub of from three to ten years’ growth, the plantation 
may be successfully made. 
The ground is cleared, the forest felled, and when 
the brushwood and branches are dry they are set on 
fire, and when thoroughly burnt, the pepper is planted. 
Such ground has, in addition to the humus, the potash, 
carbon, etc., of the burnt forest, and this is very suitable 
for the pepper. Owing, however, to the heavy rains, 
much of the soluble constituents of the soil, as well as 
the finer particles, are soon washed out, and manuring 
in these soils (as treated of later) becomes absolutely 
essential. 
According to Marsden, in Sumatra pepper throve 
