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counting food and clothing. With a good gardener to look after them 
their work is better and cheaper than that of the ordinary free coolie 
who works for a monthly wage. 
The foregoing represents in brief outline the unvarying. routine 
of a Chinaman’s pepper garden. When the price of pepper was high 
it was possible to make large profits, but at the present day with an 
abnormally low price for the product, it is difficult for the average 
gardener to pay his way. So depressed is the industry that hundreds 
of gardens have been completely abandoned of late years and only 
those are likely to continue who, having a little capital of their own, 
can afford to run the concern unassisted by the merchant money 
lender. 
At the present time fl908) the price of pepper in Kuching is $17 
per picul whereas a few years ago it had reached a price of more than 
$60 per picul. (The exchange value of the dollar was then only about 
l s of the present dollar). 
Considering the magnitude of the pepper industry it is somewhat 
unfortunate that so little has been attempted in the way of possible 
improvements in the methods of working. It is very unlikely that the 
Chinese agriculturist will care to experiment with western novelties, 
but nevertheless it would seem quite possible that some appreciable 
reductions in the cost could be effected ; and thereby an industry 
which is threatened almost with extinction could be considerably 
resuscitated. The Chinese gardener is at present obliged to endure 
unnecessary expense in his insecticide and apparently also in the 
manure. The costly item of the insecticide is Tobacco and so far, 
a satisfactory substitute has not appeared. Very recently, a series of 
interesting experiments have been conducted by Mr. R. E. Hose of 
Busau in the hope of providing' cheaper insecticides, and artificial 
manures, but the results are as yet inconclusive. These experiments 
have certainly proved the excellence of the Chinaman’s insecticide and 
although it will no doubt be possible to replace it by a cheaper one, 
nevertheless, the problem is by no means easy, as the pepper vine is 
very sensitive, quickly dropping its leaves if subjected to drastic treat- 
ment. At any rate an improvement can be effected by the use of* a 
better spraying apparatus, the one used by the Chinaman being a 
comparatively coarse syringe. 
As regards the manurial treatment, we are here presented with a 
question of some interest. I have previously mentioned that each 
vine should be supplied at regular intervals with certain amounts of 
prawn dust and burnt earth, and that the soil is ordinarily of poor 
quality : yet not infrequently does it happen that a gardener unable to 
afford prawn dust manures his vines with burnt earth only and for 
years good crops have thus been obtained. To the pepper grower, 
burnt earth is of primary importance and it is considered to be an 
absolute essential. The method of preparing it is simple but it re- 
quires sound judgment and care to produce burnt earth of the best 
quality. In one corner of his garden, the labourer spreads out a 
quantity of brushwood and over this some logs of wood cut from the 
jungle ; on the top of this comes another layer of brushwood and over 
the whole is heaped up a large quantity of soil. The heap is fired 
