451 
including Chilis, are an absolute necessity for the health of rice-eating 
peoples, who require large quantities of them, and it is a question 
worthy of study bv those who are interested m the health or the 
population as to whether the failure of the vegetable supply does not 
produce an insanitary condition which is of considerable importance 
and possibly even greater than the risk from using night-soil on such 
vegelables, at least as brinjals, pumpkins, beans and Chilis. The 
Chilis cultivated are chiefly the Capsicum frutescens, or Capsicum 
annuutn, the long cylindrical red fruit commonly known as capsicums 
of the long Cayenne variety. 
There are a considerable number of varieties of this plant, many 
of which are rather fancy kinds, which are cultivated more as curiosi- 
ties, or from fancy, such as the black or yellow fruited varieties, but 
for trade purposes the important one is the long Cayenne. 
The bird’s eye Chili, Capsicum Minimum, is much used by 
natives also, but sufficient is cultivated usually in their gardens 01 in 
waste ground and it does not seem to form a vegetable garden crop as 
the long capsicum does, though it would be easy enough to cultivate 
it so. It is not popular among the Indian races, and is chiefly used 
by Javanese and Malays. It is, as is well known, much more pungent 
than the long Cayenne and is commonly used as a pickle or foi 
making a very hot sauce. 
For market-purposes the long pepper is the one in demand, both 
fresh and dry, and for making Cayenne pepper. 
The Capsicum is usually grown as an annual and replanted each 
year, but it can be continuously cultivated for two or three years, the 
stems and branches being cut back each year. They, however, arc 
useless after the second or at least the third year and require replant- 
ing from seed. They cannot be grown continuously on the same soil, 
as they deteriorate, and consequently require rotating with other 
crops, such as brinjals, beans, or some other annual crop. This is the 
way the Chinese usually grow them. 
In Singapore the soil in which they are cultivated is usually still 
clay, well worked up. If procurable, manure, such as cow-dung, 
should be worked into it, and burnt earth is added. 
The seeds taken from fresh-pods are soaked in saU fish water, 
that is water in which salt fish has been soaked. In this liquid they 
remain for a week. They are then taken out and dried well and 
mixed with soft earth. The object of these proceedings is to separate 
the seeds and free them of pulp, so as to be able to sow them at a 
distance from each other in the seed bed, otherwise they would cling 
together and be planted in a lump. 
They are sown in a nursery, bed and after fifty days pricked off 
into the permanent plot. The beds in the plot are fifty feet in length 
and three feet in width, and a foot apart, so that the planter can w"tilk 
between the plants and weed them. A five foot-way runs between 
each block of beds. 
