306 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
distance should be greater, perhaps 9 ft., as the roots would be 
better nourished and the produce more abundant. 
When a plantation is to be commenced, the large timber is 
cut down by Malays at the rate of 5 dollars per Oorlong. 
The remaining labour is performed by Chinese, who dig out 
the roots, burn them and the trunks, pulverise and level the 
soil, plant the pepper vines and the trees which are to support 
them. It is usual to contract with them for making the 
plantation in this manner, and taking care of it for three years, 
at the end of which time it is in bearing at a rate of 225 dollars 
for 1,000 plants. The sum is liquidated by instalments, as the 
contractor requires it, to pay his workmen. Something more 
than one -third is paid in the first year, because the labour 
is the greater ; but about one-fourth of the whole is generally 
reserved till the contract is completed and the plantation 
delivered over. This does not include the price of the plants, 
or cuttings, which are found by the proprietor of the plantation. 
The vine is first made to climb on a pole. At the end of 
ten or twelve months it is detaehed from the pole to undergo 
the process ealled laying down. A circular hole, about 18 in. 
in diameter, is dug at one side of a plant. At the bottom of this 
the plant is carried round in a circle, and the end of it is brought 
to the tree which is in future to form its support. The depth 
of the hole in which the vines are laid down varies according 
to the situation and nature of the soil ; and much judgment, to 
be acquired by practice, is requisite to adapt it to these 
circumstanees. In high and dry situations the depth must be 
considerably greater than in those which are low and moist. 
Too little depth in the former would expose the roots to be 
parched in dry seasons ; and too much in the latter would 
occasion them to rot from excess of moisture. 
The trees used for supporting the pepper vines on Prince of 
Wales Island are the Morinda citrifolia (Munkoodu) and the 
Erythrina corallodendron (Dudup). The Chinese planters allege 
that the pepper supported by the Erythrina thrives better and 
lasts longer than that supported by the Morinda. One instance 
I heard quoted in proof of this assertion was a plantation 
which had long been neglected and overgrown with weeds. 
When it came to be examined the vines which had grown on 
the Morinda were all dead, while those on the Erythrina were 
still strong and productive. The reason assigned by the planters 
for the difference is that the roots of the Erythrina do not 
spread so much or penetrate so deep as those of the Morinda ; 
whence they interfere less with the pepper, and do not draw so 
much nourishment from the earth. 
