26  PEPPER. 
Each  inlividual  plant  is  supplied  with  some  kind  of  prop,  but  in 
many  plantations,  these  supports  are  cuttings  of  some  spiny  or 
thorny  tree,  which,  striking  in  the  ground  and  throwing  out  its 
leaves  above,  furnishes  at  once  both  a  support  and  shelter  for 
the  young  pepper  plant.  If  grown  on  a  rich  soil,  the  plants 
will  bear  fruit  in  a  small  proportion,  even  in  the  first  year, 
increasing  their  produce  annually  till  the  end  of  the  fifth  year, 
when  they  yield  about  eight  or  ten  pounds  per  plant,  and  this  is 
about  the  average  produce  up  to  fifteen  or  twenty  years,  after 
which  the  plants  begin  to  decline,  seldom  or  never  surviving 
beyond  the  thirtieth  year.  A  pepper  plantation  has  a  peculiar 
yet  picturesque  appearance,  the  regular  intervals  between  the 
plants  and  the  plants  themselves  carefully  trained  against  their 
props,  gives  to  it  an  air  of  remarkable  uniformity  seldom  seen 
in  the  cultivation  of  other  crops.  The  plants,  which,  on  account 
of  their  climbing  habits,  are  technically  called  pepper  "vines," 
are  allowed  to  run  up  their  supports  to  a  height  of  three  or  four 
feet ;  the  tops  are  then  bent  down  to  the  ground,  and  the  young 
shoots  which  spring  from  these  are  tended  with  great  care  and 
neatly  trained  upwards.  The  plantations  in  Sumatra  are  said 
to  be  models  of  neatness  and  cleanliness,  all  weeds  and  refuse 
being  carefully  removed.  The  fruits  when  first  formed  are 
green,  changing  to  red,  and  finally  to  black.  When  they  make 
their  first  change  from  green  to  red,  they  are  considered  fit  for 
gathering,  for,  if  left  longer  on  the  plants,  they  are  apt  to  drop 
off,  besides  losing  a  portion  of  their  pungency.  After  gather- 
ing, the  berries  are  spread  on  mats  and  exposed  to  the  sun  to 
dry ;  they  are  then  rubbed  between  the  hands  to  remove  the 
short  stalks.  This  constitutes  black  pepper ;  but  both  black 
and  white  pepper  are  the  produce  of  the  same  plant ;  with  this 
difference,  that  the  white  is  the  largest  picked  berries,  gathered 
at  the  fullest  state  of  maturity,  and  denuded  of  its  black  outer 
husk  by  soaking  in  water.  White  pepper,  as  we  all  know,  fetches 
a  higher  price  in  the  market  than  black,  not  on  account  of  its 
greater  pungency ;  for,  as  we  have  seen,  it  has  less,  losing,  as  it 
does,  much  of  that  most  important  principle  in  the  husk  of  which 
it  is  deprived,  and  also  in  the  process  of  steeping  and  bleach- 
ing.   A  good  story  is  told  in  Mr.  Cameron's  new  book  upon 
