XI 
CAPSICUMS 
365 
CULTIVATION 
The capsicums are grown from seed, and are plants 
easy of cultivation. The soil required is light and 
friable, and should be worked up to a depth of from 
4 to 6 in., and brought to a fine tilth. If the soil is 
poor, it should be manured with cattle dung during the 
preparation of the soil, and this should be well mixed 
with the earth till it is decayed, and combined with the 
soil. 
In some countries the natives sow the seed broad- 
cast, and so leave it. This is not, however, at all 
advisable, and the proper system is to raise the plants 
in nurseries, and when sufficiently tall to plant the 
seedlings in rows, on ridges, banked up. 
The seeds, when sprinkled broadcast over the land, 
produce about 15,000 plants to the acre; planted out 
from nurseries 6,000 go to an acre (Drieberg). In 
Ceylon, the plants are planted out in April, and the 
crop commences in June, and continues on and off for 
six months. 
During the growth of the plant, the ground may be 
improved with a dressing of ashes, and the soil banked 
up around the plants. In India, when the plant begins 
to flag from continuous picking, a top-dressing of 
castor-cake, 600 to 1,000 lbs. to the acre, is given to 
prolong the cropping season. In Ceylon, the favourite 
manure consists of the leaves of Croton lacciferum. 
Cow-dung, given at this stage, is too strong, and 
causes the plant to develop leaf at the expense of fruit, 
the leaves becoming large and unhealthy. 
In Europe, the soil recommended is a light rich soil 
composed of tufty loam, rotted leaf mould, and cow 
manure in equal parts with a little silver sand. 
It must be remembered that in the tropics strong 
manure like fresh cow-dung and horse-dung (a valuable 
manure in a cold country) cannot be used in the same 
way as they can in a temperate climate. It seems 
probable that in a hot climate the decomposition of 
