XI 
CAPSICUMS 
367 
bright and clean, always meets with a ready sale. I have tried 
other varieties, but there is a very small demand and uncertain 
market for any kind except bird’s-eye. 
In the Malay peninsula the Chinese vegetable 
gardeners usually cultivate capsicums for the market 
with their other vegetables. The soil on which they 
grow the plants is usually stiff clay well dug over. The 
seeds are first planted in a tub of soil, and planted out 
three weeks later when they are about 6 in. tall. The 
beds are made as low ridges, 3 ft. across. In these the 
little plants are put in a double row, each pair being 10 
to 12 in. or more apart, sometimes as much as 2 ft 
apart, and during their growth they are mulched with a 
liquid manure, composed of one part of urine and three 
parts of rice water (water in which rice has been 
boiled). Burnt earth is also used, both before and 
during the cultivation. The plants take three months 
before they commence fruiting, and continue to bear for 
seven months. The crop suffers much from rain, when 
the fall is excessive or more than usual through the 
year. 
The rain is said to spoil the flowers and fruits ; the 
fungus which attacks the leaves and fruits being more 
abundant and destructive in wet weather is probably the 
cause of this theory. 
The large-sized Capsicum annuum is the chief one 
cultivated by the Chinese, as it is best in demand. The 
bird’s-eye chili is more rarely cultivated on a large 
scale, as there are plants in all village gardens and 
compounds enough to supply the demand. 
The following directions for planting capsicums were 
given me by a Chinese planter some years ago, as the 
method in use in Singapore : — Get some fresh chilies, 
cut them open and take out the seeds. Put the seeds 
in a bowl of salt-fish water (i.e. water in which salt fish 
has been soaked), and allow them to soak for at least 
six or seven days. The ground selected is low-lying and 
always slightly damp. It must be turned over and 
well broken up, and then sprinkled over with burnt 
