AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 
OP THE 
STRAITS 
AND 
FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 
No. 6.] JDNE, 1908. [VOL. VII. 
THE CULTIVATION OF PEPPER IN SARAWAK. 
By J. Hewitt. 
For many years the cultivation of the Piper nigrum has been one 
of the staple industries of Borneo : it was mentioned by the earliest 
European travellers as a valuable product of the country, and by the 
end of the eighteenth century the spice was so much cultivated that 
there were said to be in Brunei no less than 30,000 Chinamen of whom 
the majority were pepper planters. 
The vine is not however indigenous to Borneo and it must have 
been introduced at an early date by Chinamen or possibly by Indians. 
Of late years at any rate the industry is entirely in the hands of the 
Chinaman whom nature has endowed with a temperament particularly 
suitable for this kind of agriculture. For the successful growing of 
pepper it is desirable that each individual vine should receive constant 
and careful attention and accordingly the celestial husbandman pets 
and cares for his vines as if they were his children. 
With such an essential to success, pepper growing does not com- 
mend itself to the native of Borneo whose “ forte ” lies rather with fruit 
trees. 
The chief pepper growing district of this country is in Upper 
Sarawak, but pepper gardens are also found on the Rejang and Batang 
Lupar rivers and in fact in the neighbourhood of any port, provided 
that suitable land can be obtained. 
The site usually chosen for a garden is on sloping ground which 
can be well drained, and they appear to pay as much attention to the 
facilities for draining as to the quality of the soil. In fact, the soil of 
an average pepper garden in Upper Sarawak is a stiff 3 r ellow clay of 
poor quality. Nevertheless, the Chinaman wherever possible chooses 
a soil which experience has shewn to be most productive and in Upper 
Sarawak for instance he has followed the porphyry dykes : a sandy soil 
is usually avoided. 
