SECTION III. (continued 2)

But suppose the distinction could be made with the most perfect certainty, to make it would be a palpable departure from the principle adopted with every other commodity, of charging a uniform rate of duty on quality. To give an example, the present price of black pepper is 3⅝d. to 4d. per pound, while that of white pepper is 8½d. to 1s. 2d. per pound, both paying the same duty of 6d.; yet nothing can be more easily distinguished than these two commodities, which, except as to curing, are the same article.

Tea is a still more striking example. The duty is the same on all qualities, though prices range from 1l½d. to 3s. 6d. per pound. It was the very circumstance of the difficulty of distinguishing between the different kinds of tea, especially between Bohea and Congou, which, after an eighteen months trial, overthrew the system of rated duties of 1s. 6d., 2s., and 3s., adopted on the abolition of the East India Company's monopoly in 1833.

Unless the duty on nutmegs is equalised there will be no end of trouble and disputes, and however expert the Customs may be, they will certainly be outwitted, and long-shaped and small nutmegs, although really cultivated, will be introduced at the lower duty, by unscrupulous traders, as wild ones.

It may be added that duties of 12d. and 5d. do not, even if a departure from the principle of charging on quality were justifiable, represent the just proportional rates which ought to be levied upon what are supposed to be, respectively, cultivated and wild, as they are represented in the ordinary Price Current by the highest and lowest prices, which are 3s. 10d. and 2s. The just proportional duty ought to be on the lowest, not 5d., but 7d. The duty, as first proposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, of 1s. per pound on nutmegs, without distinction, was perfectly satisfactory to the planters, merchants, and the trade in general.

It is a mistake to suppose that a duty of 1s. would exclude the so-called wild nutmegs. They would be imported in large quantities, as the cost is low. In quantity it was 17 Spanish dollars per picul, and there is no reason to suppose it would be more now. The finest picked cost say 34 Spanish dollars.

In Pinang and Singapore for cultivated the price is 65 to 70 dollars.

The planters for the most part do not sell on the spot, but consign here for sale on their own account.

London, May 23rd, 1853.

NUTMEGS IMPORTED AND EXPORTED TO AND FROM SINGAPORE.

Imported. piculs.Exported. piculs.Growth of Singapore.Value of the native growth. £

1841227½412184½3,323

18422588095519,897

1843150½24998½1,760

1844522822304,131

1845413833426,143

1846793312524,526

18471394162774,275

NUTMEGS EXPORTED FROM JAVA.

Nutmegs. piculs.Mace. piculs.

18301,304177

18355,0221,606

18395,0271,581

18432,133486

IMPORTS INTO THE UNITED KINGDOM.

NUTMEGS, WILD AND CULTIVATED.MACE.

Imports. lbs.Home consump. lbs.Imports. lbs.Consumption. lbs.

1847367,936150,657184760,26518,821

1848336,420167,143184847,57219,712

1849224,021178,417184945,97820,605

1850315,126167,683185077,33721,997

1851358,320194,132185177,86321,695

1852357,940239,113185261,69721,480

MACE EXPORTED—ACTUAL GROWTH OF SINGAPORE.

Quantity—piculs.Value—£

184125½583

1842721,616

184340¾943

184416½359

1845711,616

18468179

1847751,661

109 piculs of imported mace were also re-shipped in 1847.

40,000 lbs. of mace were imported into the United Kingdom from India in 1848.

GINGER, GALANGALE, AND CARDAMOMS.

The rhizome of Zingiber officinale (Amomum Zingiber), constitutes the ginger of commerce, which is imported chiefly from the East and West Indies. It is also grown in China. In the young state the rhizomes are fleshy and slightly aromatic, and they are then used as preserves, or prepared in syrup; in a more advanced stage the aroma is fully developed, their texture is more woody, and they become fit for ordinary ginger. The inferior sorts, when dried after immersion in hot water, form black ginger. The best roots are scraped, washed, and simply dried in the sun with care, and then they receive the name of white ginger. The rhizome contains an acid resin and volatile oil, starch and gum. It is used medicinally as a tonic and carminative, in the form of powder, syrup, and tincture.

The root stocks of Alpinia racemosa, A. Galanga, and many other plants of the order, have the same aromatic and pungent properties as ginger.

The consumption of ginger is about 13,000 or 14,000 cwt. a year. Of 16,004 cwt. imported in 1840, 5,381 came from the British West Indies, 9,727 from the East India Company's possessions and Ceylon, and 896 cwt. from Western Africa.

The difference between the black and white ginger of the shops is ascribed by Dr. P. Browne and others to different methods of curing the rhizomes; but this is scarcely sufficient to account for them, and I cannot help suspecting the existence of some difference in the plants themselves. That this really exists is proved by the statements of Rumphius ("Herb. Amb.," lib. 8, cap. xix., p. 156), that there are two varieties of the plant, the white and the red. Moreover Dr. Wright ("Lond. Med. Journal," vol. viii.) says that two sorts are cultivated in Jamaica, viz., the white and the black; and, he adds, "black ginger has the most numerous and largest roots."

The rhizome, called in commerce ginger root, occurs in flattish-branched or lobed palmate pieces, called races, which do not exceed four inches in length. Several varieties, distinguished by their color and place of growth, are met with. The finest is that brought from Jamaica. A great part of that found in the shops has been washed in whiting and water, under the pretence of preserving it from insects.

The dark colored kinds are frequently bleached with chloride of lime. Barbados ginger is in shorter flatter races, of a darker color, and covered with a corrugated epidermis. African ginger is in smallish races, which have been partially scraped, and are pale colored. East India ginger is unscraped; its races are dark ash colored externally, and are larger than those of the African ginger. Tellichery ginger is in large plump races, with a remarkable reddish tint externally.

Jamaica black ginger is not frequently found in the shops. The Malabar dark ginger is in unscraped short pieces, which have a horny appearance internally, and are of a dirty brown color both internally and externally.

Ginger is imported in bags weighing about a hundred-weight.

The Malabar ginger exported from Calicut is the produce of the district of Shernaad, situated in the south of Calicut; a place chiefly inhabited by Moplas, who look upon the ginger cultivation as a most valuable and profitable trade, which in fact it is. The soil of Shernaad is so very luxuriant, and so well suited for the cultivation of ginger, that it is reckoned the best, and in fact the only place in Malabar where ginger grows and thrives to perfection. Gravelly grounds are considered unfit; the same may be said of swampy ones, and whilst the former check the growth of the ginger, the latter tend in a great measure to rot the root; thus the only suitable kind of soil is that which, being red earth, is yet free from gravel, and the sod good and heavy. The cultivation generally commences about the middle of May, after the ground has undergone a thorough process of ploughing, harrowing, &c.

At the commencement of the monsoons, beds of ten or twelve feet long by three or four feet wide are formed, and in these beds small holes are dug at three-fourths to one foot apart, which are filled with manure. The roots, hitherto carefully buried under sheds, are dug out, the good ones picked from those which are affected by the moisture, or any other concomitant of a half-year's exclusion from the atmosphere, and the process of clipping them into suitable sizes for planting performed by cutting the ginger into pieces of an inch and a half to two inches long. These are then buried in the holes, which have been previously manured, and the whole of the beds are then covered with a good thick layer of green leaves, which, whilst they serve as manure, also contribute to keep the beds from unnecessary dampness, which might otherwise be occasioned by the heavy falls of rain during the months of June and July. Rain is essentially requisite for the growth of the ginger; it is also however necessary, that the beds be constantly kept from inundation, which, if not carefully attended to, the crop is entirely ruined; great precaution is therefore taken in forming drains between the beds, and letting water out, thus preventing a superfluity. On account of the great tendency some kinds of leaves have to breed worms and insects, strict care is observed in the choosing of them, and none but the particular kinds used in manuring ginger are taken in, lest the wrong ones might fetch in worms, which, if once in the beds, no remedy can be resorted to successfully to destroy them; thus they in a very short time ruin the crop. Worms bred from the leaves laid on the soil, though highly destructive, are not so pernicious to ginger cultivation as those which proceed from the effect of the soil. The former kind, whilst they destroy the beds in which they once appear, do not spread themselves to the other beds, be they ever so close, but the latter kind must of course be found in almost all the beds, as they do not proceed from accidental causes, but from the nature of the soil. In cases like these, the whole crop is oftentimes ruined, and the cultivators are thereby subjected to heavy losses.

Ginger is extensively diffused throughout the Indian isles, it being especially indigenous to the East, and of pretty general use among the natives, who neglect the finer spices. The great and smaller varieties are cultivated, and the sub-varieties distinguished by their brown or white colors. There is no production which has a greater diversity of names. This diversity proves, as usual, the wide diffusion of the plant in its wild state. The ginger of the Indian Archipelago is however inferior in quality to that of Malabar or Bengal. In the cultivation of ginger great improvement may be adopted and expense saved. The garden plough and small harrow should be used.

The present mode of preparing the land for this crop in the West Indies, is by first carefully hoeing off all bush and weeds from the piece you intend to plant; the workmen are then placed in a line, and dig forward the land to the full depth of the hoe, cutting the furrow not more than from five to six inches thick. The land is then allowed to pulverise for a short time; you then prepare it for receiving the plants by opening drills with the hoe, from ten to twelve inches apart, and the same in depth, chopping or breaking up any clods that may be in the land. Two or three women follow and drop the plants in the drills, say from nine to ten inches apart. The plants or sets are the small knots or fingers broken off the original root, as not worth the scraping. The plants are then covered in with a portion of the earth-bank formed in drilling. It requires great care and attention in keeping them clean from weeds until they attain sufficient age. It throws out a pedicle or foot stalk in the course of the second or third week, the leaves of which are of similar shape to that of the Guinea grass.

Ginger is a delicate plant, and very liable to rot, particularly if planted in too rich a soil, or where it may be subject to heavy rains. The general average of yield is from 1,500 to 2,000 lbs. per acre in plants, although I have known as much as 3,000 lbs. of ginger cured from an acre of land. The planting season generally commences in Jamaica in February and March, and the crop is got in in December and January, when the stalks begin to wither. The ginger is taken from the ground by means of the hoe, each laborer filling a good-sized basket, at the same time breaking off the small knots or knobs for future planting.

A good scraper of ginger will give you from 30 to 40 lbs. of ginger per day. It is then laid on barbacues (generally made of boards) to dry. It takes from six to ten days to be properly cured. The average yield in weight is about one-third of what is scraped. When intended for preserving, the roots must be taken up at the end of three or four months, while the fibres are tender and full of sap.

The ginger grown in the West Indies is considered superior in quality to that of the East, doubtless because more care is paid to the culture and drying of the root, but it is of less importance to commerce. The quantities imported from these two quarters is however becoming more equal, and Africa is coming into the field as a producer, 1,545 casks and packages having arrived from the western coast in 1846. The annual average export of ginger from Barbados between the years 1740 and 1788, was 4,667 bags; between 1784 and 1786, 6,320 bags; in 1788, 5,562 cwt. were shipped; in 1792, 3,046 bags and barrels. In 1738, so widely was the culture of this root diffused in Jamaica, that 20,933 bags, of one cwt. each, and 8,864 lbs. in casks were shipped. The exports may now be taken on an average at 4,000 cwt.; but, like all the other staple products of the island, this has fallen off one-half since the emancipation of the negro population.

In the three years which preceded the abolition of slavery, 5,719,000 lbs. of ginger were shipped from Jamaica. In the three years ending with 1848, the quantity shipped had decreased 2,612,186 lbs., as will be seen by the following returns:—

GINGER SHIPPED.

lbslbs.

18301,748,80018461,462,000

18311,614,64018471,324,480

18322,355,5601848320,340

5,719,0003,106,820

In 1843 there were shipped from Jamaica 3,719 casks and bags; in 1844, 3,692 casks and 1730 bags; in 1845, 3,506 casks, valued at £4 10s. each, and 1,129 bags, valued at £2 each, equal in all to £18,037. From the island of Hayti 8,769 lbs. of ginger were exported in 1835, and 15,509 lbs. in 1836. 39 packages of ginger were shipped from Barbados in 1851.

In Maranham and one or two other provinces of Brazil, ginger of an excellent quality is grown, and a good deal is exported. It was very early an article of culture in South America. According to Acosta, it was brought to America by one Francisco de Mendoza, from Malabar, and so rapidly did its cultivation spread, that as far back as 1547, 22,053 cwt. were shipped to Europe. Southey, in his "History of Brazil" (vol. i., p. 320), says, "Ginger had been brought from the island of St. Thomas, and throve so well that in the year 1573, 4,000 arrobas of 25 lbs. each were cured; it was better than what came from India, though the art of drying it was not so well understood. Great use was made of this root in preserves, but it was prohibited, as interfering with the Indian trade in that wretched species of policy which regards immediate revenue as its main object."

Ginger was worth in the London market 25s. to 60s. the cwt. in bond; middling and fine qualities, 80s. to 160s. The duty is 5s. per cwt.

Amount of imports of ginger into the United Kingdom, with the quantities entered for home consumption:—

West India ginger. cwts.Entered for home consumption. cwts.East India ginger. cwts.Entered for home consumption. cwts.

18313,5514,70984979

18325,9476,7952,508213

18336,0646,57010,0491,099

18349,9139,91810,0041,638

18358,3218,9824,4891,647

183610,2266,30413,5893,524

183710,9339,90523,8763,386

183813,3669,94425,6491,431

18398,9967,21329,624914

18405,3817,9359,7191,568

18414,4465,5235,2921,177

18424,6715,0683,6801,956

18434,0135,9534,1063,254

casks, &c.casks.bags.bags.

18444,6193,1285,1016,964

18456,0334,0008,1657,938

TotalRetained for

ginger imported.home consumption.

cwts.cwts.

184624,37015,937

184620,01015,163

184712,9959,744

184813,74810,454

184928,01512,880

185033,95316,543

185135,67819,855

185220,29718,691

GALANGALE ROOT is a good deal used in China, and forms an article of commerce, fetching in the London market 12s. to 16s. per cwt. in bond. It is the rhizoma of Alpinia Galanga. Its taste is peppery and aromatic. Externally the color of the root-stocks is reddish brown, internally pale reddish white.

1,280 cwt. of galangale root, valued at 2,880 dollars, was exported from Canton in 1850.

CARDAMOMS.

Cardamoms are the production of various species of plants of the same tribe as the ginger, and might be profitably cultivated with that aromatic root, as well as the Turmeric (Curcuma longa), which see.

Various species of Alpiniæ, Amomum, Elettaria, and Renealmia, appear to furnish the cardamoms of the shops, which consist of the oval, trivalvular capsules containing the seeds. The bright yellow seeds are used in medicine as aromatic tonics and carminatives; and for curries, ketchups, soups, &c. Their active ingredient is a pungent volatile oil. The least dampness injures the finer sorts. About 688 cwts. of cardamoms, and 5,000 cwts. of bastard cardamoms are annually exported from Siam, "We imported about 300 tons in 1849. The price ranges from 1s. 6d. to 3s. the pound. The estimated value of the cardamoms and pepper shipped from Ceylon in the past few years was as follows:—1846, £208; 1847, £246; 1848, £205; 1849, £454; 1850, £960; 1851, £771; 1852, £590. The" following are some of the plants from which cardamoms are procured.

1. Amomum Cardamomum, a Java plant, supplies the round cardamoms. It has pale brown flowers. The fruit varies in size from that of a black currant to a cherry.

2. A. angustifolium (Pereira), a plant having red blossoms; furnishes the large Madagascar cardamoms, and also supplies some of the seeds called "Grains of Paradise," which are, however, larger than those imported under that name.

This species is found in Abyssinia, according to my friend Mr. Chas. Johnston, author of "Travels in Abyssinia," who favored me with some specimens. The seeds are pale olive brown, devoid of the fiery peppery taste of the grains of paradise.

3. A. maximum, the great winged amomum, produces the Java cardamoma of the London market, and is also grown extensively in Ceylon, the Malay islands, Nepaul, Sumatra, and other islands of the Eastern Archipelago. There were exported from Ceylon in 1842, 5,364 lbs.; in 1843, 9,632 lbs.; 1844, 7,280 lbs.; and in 1845, 11,812 lbs. The pods are large and long, and dark colored, approaching to black, the taste nauseous and disagreeable, not the least resembling that of the Malabar cardamoms. It is propagated by cuttings of the rhizoma. The plants yield in three years, and afterwards give an annual crop. They are not used here, but sent to the continent.

4. Alpinia Cardamomum.—This is the source of the clustered cardamoms, and furnishes the best known sort. Its produce is in great request throughout India, fetching as much as £30 the candy of 600 Lbs. About 192 candies are grown annually in Travancore, and the usual crop in Malabar is reckoned at 100 candies annually. It flourishes on the mountainous parts of the Malabar coast, and among the western mountains of Wynaad. The bulbous plants, which grow three or four feet high, are produced in the recesses of the mountains by felling trees, and afterwards burning them, for wherever the ashes fall in the openings or fissures of the rocks, the plant naturally springs up. In the third year the plants come to perfection, bearing abundantly for a year or two, and then die. In Soonda Balagat, and other places where cardamoms are planted, they are much inferior to those grown in the wild state. It may be propagated by cuttings or divisions of the roots. Not more than one-hundredth part of the cardamoms raised in Malabar are used in the country. They are sent in large quantities to the ports on the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf, up the Indus to Scinde, to Bengal and Bombay. The price of Malabar cardamons at Madras, in June, 1853, was about £3 the maund of 25 lbs. They fetch in the Bombay market £4 10s. the maund of 40 lbs. Cardamoms form a universal ingredient in curries, pillaus, &c. The seed capsules are gathered as they ripen, and when dried in the sun are fit for sale. They should be chosen full, plump, and difficult to be broken; of a bright yellow color, and piercing smell; with an acrid bitterish, though not very unpleasant taste, and particular care should be taken that they are properly dried.

5. Amomum Grana-Paradisi, which is indigenous to the islands of Madagascar and Ceylon, yields an inferior sort of cardamoms, known by the names of grains of paradise, or Meleguetta pepper. These are worth in the English market only from 1s. 2d. to 1s. 4d. per pound, while the long and Malabar cardamoms fetch 2s. 8d. to 3s. 3d. the pound. This plant is a native of Guinea, and the western parts of Africa about Sierra Leone. We imported from thence in 1841, 7,911 pounds.

The taste of these Guinea grains is aromatic and vehemently hot or peppery. They are imported in casks from Africa, and are principally used in veterinary medicine, and to give an artificial strength to spirits, wine, beer, &c. The average quantity on which duty was paid in the six years ending with 1840, was 16,000 lbs. per annum. They are esteemed in Africa the most wholesome of spices, and generally used by the natives to season their food.

Dr. Pereira, from a careful examination and close inquiry, is of opinion that the Amomum Grana-Paradisi of Smith, and the Amamum Melegueta of Roscoe, are identical species.

In the second volume of the "Pharmaceutical Journal," Dr. Pereira states that the term "grains of paradise," or Melegueta, has been applied to the produce of no less than six scitamineous plants. At the present time, and in this country, the term is exclusively given to the hot acrid seeds imported into England from the coast of Guinea, and frequently called Guinea grains; and by the Africans Guinea pepper.

Elettaria Cardomomum, Don.—The fruit of this species constitutes the true, small, officinal Malabar cardamoms. It is an ovate oblong, obtusely triangular capsule, from three to ten lines long, rarely exceeding three lines in breadth, coriaceous, ribbed, greyish or brownish yellow. It contains many angular, blackish or reddish brown rugose seeds, which are white internally, have a pleasant aromatic odor, and a warm agreeable taste. 100 parts of the fruit yield 74 parts of seeds, and 26 parts of pericarpal coats.

This seems to be identical with Amomum Cardamomum.

Elettaria major, is a perennial, native of Ceylon, which grows in shady situations in a rich mixed soil. The dried capsules are known in commerce as wild or Ceylon cardamoms, and are of less value in the market than those of Malabar (Elettaria Cardamomum, Maton). It is chiefly grown about the Kandyan district; and in the eight years ending with 1813, the average export was nine and a-half candies per annum. The seeds in taste resemble our carraways, and are used for seasoning various dishes.

Ceylon cardamoms are now worth in the London market (Sept., 1853) 1s. to 1s. 3d. per lb.; Malabar ditto, 2s. 3d. to 3s.

PEPPER.

The black pepper of commerce is obtained from the dried unripe fruit (drupes) of Piper nigrum, a climbing plant common in the East Indies, and of the simplest culture, being multiplied with facility by cuttings or suckers. The ripe fruit, when deprived of its outer fleshy covering by washing, forms the white pepper of the shops. The dried fruiting spikes of P. longum, a perennial shrub, native of Malabar and Bengal, constitute long pepper. The fruit of Xylopia aromatica is commonly called Ethiopian pepper, from being used as pepper in Africa. The seeds of some species of fennel-flower (Nigella sativa and arvensis), natives of the south of Europe, were formerly used instead of pepper, and are said to be still extensively employed in adulterating it. In Japan, the capsules of Xanthoxylum piperitum, or Fagara Piperita, are used as a substitute for pepper, and so is the fruit of Tasmannia aromatica in Van Diemen's Land. According to Dr. Roxburgh, P. trioicum is cultivated in the East, and yields an excellent pepper.

The pepper vine rises about two feet in the first year of its growth, and attains to nearly six feet in the second, at which time, if vigorous and healthy, the petals begin to form the corolla or blossom. All suckers and side shoots are to be carefully removed, and the vines should be thinned or pruned, if they become bushy at the top. Rank coarse weeds and parasitical plants should be uprooted. The vine would climb, if permitted, to the elevation of twenty feet, but is said to bear best when kept down to the height of ten or twelve feet. It produces two crops in the year. The fruit grows abundantly from all the branches, in long small clusters of from 20 to 50 grains; when ripe it is of a bright red color. After being gathered, it is spread on mats in the sun to dry, when it becomes black and shrivelled. The grains are separated from the stalks by hand rubbing. The roots and thickest parts of the stems, when cut into small pieces and dried, form a considerable article of commerce all over India, under the name of Pippula moola.

Almost all the plants of the family Piperaceæ have a strong aromatic smell and a sharp burning taste. This small group of plants is confined to the hottest regions of the globe; being most abundant in tropical America and in the East Indian Archipelago, but more rare in the equinoctial regions of Africa. The common black pepper, P. nigrum, represents the usual property of the order, which is not confined to the fruit, but pervades, more or less, the whole plant. It is peculiar to the torrid zone of Asia, and appears to be indigenous to the coast of Malabar, where it has been found in a wild state. From this it extends between the meridians of longitude 96 deg. and 116 deg. S. and the parallels of latitude 5 deg. S. and 12 deg. N., beyond which no pepper is found. Within these limits are the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, with the Malay peninsula and part of Siam. Sumatra produces by far the greatest quantity of pepper. In 1842, the annual produce of this island was reckoned at 30,000,000 lbs., being more than the amount furnished by all the other pepper districts in the world.

A little pepper is grown in the Mauritius and the West India Islands, and its cultivation is making some progress on the Western Coast of Africa, as we imported from thence 2,909 bags and casks in 1846, and about 110,000 lbs. in 1847.

Mr. J. Crawfurd, F.R.S., one of the best authorities on all that relates to the commerce and agriculture of the Eastern Archipelago, recently estimated the produce of pepper as follows:—

lbs.

Sumatra (West Coast)20,000,000

Sumatra (East Coast)8,000,000

Islands in the Straits of Malacca3,600,000

Malay Peninsula3,733,333

Borneo2,666,667

Siam8,000,000

Malabar4,060,000

Total50,000,000

If we add to this

Western Coast of Africa and B.W. Indies53,000

Java4,000,000

Mauritius and Ceylon80,000

It gives54,133,000

as the total produce of the world

Black pepper constitutes a great and valuable article of export from the Indian Islands; which, as we have seen, afford by far the largest portion of What is consumed throughout the world. In the first intercourse of the Dutch and English with India, it constituted the most considerable and important staple of their commerce. The production of pepper is confined in a great measure to the western countries of the Eastern Archipelago, and among these to the islands in the centre and to the northern quarter, including the Peninsula. It is obtained in the ports on both sides of the coast of the latter, but particularly the north-eastern coast. The principal quarters (according to Mr. Crawfurd, my authority on this subject), are Patani, Tringanu, and Kalantin. In the Straits a large quantity is produced in the island of Singapore, and above all in Pinang, where the capital of Europeans and the skill and industry of the Chinese have been successfully applied to its culture. The western extremity of Sumatra, and the north-west coast of that island, are the most remarkable situations in it for the production of pepper, and here we have Acheen, Tikao, Bencoolen, Padang, and the country of the Lampungs. The production of the eastern extremity of Sumatra or Palembang is considerable, but held of inferior quality. In the fertile island of Java, the quantity of pepper grown is inconsiderable, nor is it remarkable for the goodness of its quality.

The province of Bantam has always furnished, and still continues to produce, the most pepper; but the culture of this creeper is fast giving place in Java to staples affording higher profits and requiring less care. The exports were, in the following years:—

piculs.

18306,061

183511,868

183911,044

184113,477

lbs.

18433,737,732

1848461,680

185195,037

1852135,690

The number of pepper vines in the district of Bencoolen, in the close of last year, 1852, was as follows:—1,571,894 young vines; 2,437,052 bearing ditto; total, 4,008,946.

Up to the end of September there had been delivered to the Government 1,145 piculs white pepper, and 1,128 piculs black pepper, while of the harvest of 1852 there were still probably to be received 330 piculs white, and 4,967 piculs black pepper.

The south, the west, and the north coasts of the great island of Borneo produce a large quantity of pepper; as early as 1721 it was a staple commodity of this island. Banjarmassin is the most productive place on the south coast, and the State of Borneo Proper on the north coast. The best pepper certainly does not grow in the richest soils, for the peppers of Java and Palembang are the worst of the Archipelago, and that of Pinang and the west coast of Sumatra are the best. Care in culture and curing improves the quality, as with other articles, and for this reason chiefly it is that the pepper of Pinang is more in esteem than that of any other portion of the Archipelago. From the ports and districts of Siam 3,500 to 4,000 tons are exported annually.

The duty at present levied on pepper in England is 6d. per lb., while the wholesale price for that of Pinang, Malabar, and Sumatra is about 4d. per lb. White pepper ranges from 9d. to 1s. 6d. per lb. The prime cost in Singapore is not more than 1½d. per lb.

About 70,000 or 80,000 piculs of pepper are annually exported from Singapore, of which between 30,000 and 40,000 piculs have, until within the last two years, gone on to Great Britain. More than one-half of the pepper exported from Singapore is grown in the island by Chinese settlers.

The low selling price of the article in the English market, the high duty levied upon it, and the large freight paid for its carriage to Great Britain, now leave so small a price to the cultivator in Singapore, that the cultivation ceases to be remunerative, and is carried on at a loss; and has consequently within the last year or two begun to decrease rapidly, involving the Chinese growers, who are generally of the poorest class, and without capital, in great distress. A reduction in the duty on pepper has always been followed by a very large increase in the consumption of the article, as will appear from the following table, showing the importation and consumption in Great Britain during some of the first and last years of the different rates of duty:—

QuantityDutySingapore price

Yearconsumeds.d.s.d.s.d.

18111,457,383110½07½to07¾

1814941,569110½011"11

18201,404,0212606½"06¾

18241,447,0302604¾"05½

18262,529,0272004"04½

18362,749,4911000"00

18372,625,0750600"00

18453,210,4150602¼"04¾

In a memorial from the mercantile community of Singapore, sent home in 1848, it is asserted that a reduction in the duty of pepper being always attended by a large increase in the consumption, would not lead to any serious loss in the revenue, while it would confer a great boon on the poorer classes, to whom it has now become a necessary article of life. The reduction would also be of great advantage to British manufacturers, as well as to our Indian possessions, by giving rise to an increased demand or British goods and productions, and of the highest benefit to the agricultural settlers in the island of Singapore, by enabling them to procure for their labor an honest means of livelihood.

The pepper vines, which are allowed to climb poles or small trees, are tolerably productive at Singapore; and pepper planting is esteemed by the Chinese to be a profitable speculation, particularly if they are enabled to evade the payment of quit-rent. An acre of pepper vines will yield 1,161 lbs. of clean pepper. In Sumatra a full grown plant has been known to produce seven pounds; in Pinang the yield is much more. The average produce of one thousand vines is said, however, to be only about 450 lbs.

Colonel Low, in his "Dissertation on Pinang," published at Singapore some years ago, gives an interesting account of the culture:—

"Pepper was, during many years, the staple product of Pinang soil, the average annual quantity having been nearly four millions of pounds; but previous to the year 1810, the above amount had decreased to about two-and-a-half millions of pounds, which was the result of the continental system.

The price having fallen at length to three and three-and-a-half dollars the picul—with only a few occasional exceptions of rises—the cultivation of this spice was gradually abandoned, and the total product at this day does not exceed 2,000 piculs. The original cost, when pepper was at a high price, together with charges of transporting it to Europe, amounted to £36,357 for every five hundred tons, and the loss by wastage was estimated at £5,405. In 1818 there remained on the island 1,480,265 pepper vines in bearing, and the average value of exports of pepper from Pinang, including that received from other places, was averaged at 106,870 Spanish dollars.

As might have been foreseen, the fall of prices has so greatly diminished the cultivation of pepper to the eastward, that a reaction is likely to take place; and has in fact partly shown itself already. Some Chinese in Pinang and Province Wellesley seem to be preparing to renew the cultivation. There is abundant scope for the purpose on both sides of the harbour, and every facility is at hand for carrying it on.

The pepper plant or vine requires a good soil, the richer the better, but the red soil of the higher hills is not congenial, the Chinese think, to it. The undulations skirting the bases of the hills, and the deep alluvial lands, where not saturated with water, or liable to be overflowed, are preferred.

The Chinese have always been the chief cultivators, and when the speculation flourished they received advances from the merchants, which they paid back in produce at fixed rates.

When pepper was extensively cultivated on Prince of Wales Island, the European owner of the land had the forest cleared by contract, and the vines planted by contract, and when the vines came into bearing the plantation was farmed to the Chinese from year to year, on payment of a specific quantity of pepper. Any other plan would have ruined the capitalist, as the culture is almost entirely in their hands in the Straits' Settlements, and they will not work so well for others as when they are specially interested.

The plants are set out at intervals, every way, of from seven to twelve feet, according to the degree of fertility of the soil, so that there are from 800 to 1,000 vines in one orlong of land; to each vine is allotted a prop of from ten to thirteen feet high, cut from the thorny tree called dadap, or where that is scarce, from the less durable boonglai; these props take root, thus affording both shade and support to the plant. The plant may be raised from seed pepper, but the plan is not approved of, cuttings being preferable, as they soonest come into bearing. The pits in which these cuttings are set should be a foot-and-a-half square, and two feet in depth; manure is not often applied, and then it is only some turf ashes. However unpicturesque a pepper plantation may be, still its neat and uniform appearance renders the landscape lively, and there can be little doubt that the island has suffered in its salubrity since the jungle usurped the extensive tracts formerly under pepper cultivation.

When the vine has reached the height of three or four feet, it is bent down and laid in the earth, and about five of the strongest shoots which now spring up are retained and carefully trained up the prop, to which they are tied by means of ligatures of some creeping plants.

One Chinese, after the plantation has been formed, can take care of two orlongs of land. The usual mode is this:—an advance is made by the capitalist to the laborer for building a house, and for agricultural implements; he then receives two dollars monthly to subsist on, until the end of the third year, when the estate or plantation is equally divided betwixt the contracting parties.

The Chinese and even European cultivators used formerly to engage the Chinese who had just arrived from China; they paid off their passage-money, and then allowed them two dollars monthly, for provisions, for one year; with a suit of clothes, by which means the cost of the labor of one man averaged about three dollars monthly; but this plan is attended with risks.

The cost attendant on the cultivation of two orlongs of land, with pepper, for three years—the Chinese laborer receiving the usual hire of five Spanish dollars monthly—will be nearly as follows:—

Spanish dollars.

Price of land, clearing, and planting40

Quit rent, at 75 cents per annum per orlong9

Two thousand plants4

Two thousand dadap props6

Implements6

House10

Labor200

Interest, loosely calculated at30

Total Spanish dollars305

In a very good soil a pepper vine will yield about one-eighth of a pound of dry produce at the end of the first year; at the end of the second, about a quarter of a pound; and at the expiration of the third, probably one pound; at the end of the fourth, from three to three-and-a-half pounds; ditto fifth, from eight to ten pounds. After the fifth year up to the fifteenth, or even the twentieth year, about ten pounds of dry merchantable produce may be obtained from each vine, under favorable circumstances. The Chinese speculator used to rent out his half-share of a new plantation for five years, to his cultivating partner, after the expiration of the first three years, at the rate of thirty piculs per annum; the total produce of these five years giving about fifty-six piculs annually as an average.

A pepper plantation never survives the thirtieth year, unless in extremely rich soil, and then it is unproductive; nor will the young vine thrive on an old worn out pepper land, a peculiarity which is applicable to the coffee tree. The chief crop lasts from August to February. Four pounds of dry produce, for ten of green, is considered a fair estimate. Great care is requisite in the management of the vine, and especially in training and tying it on the props. It is subject to be injured by the attacks of a small insect. The green pepper dries in two or three days, and if it is intended that it shall be black, it is pulled before it is quite ripe. To make white pepper, the berry is allowed to remain somewhat longer on the vine; it is, when plucked, immersed in boiling water, by means of which process and subsequent friction, before drying, the husk is separated.

The exports of pepper from Pinang in the last four years have been—In 1849, 2,591,233 lbs.; in 1850, 6,397,733 lbs.; in 1851, 2,366,933 lbs.; in 1852, 2,112,133 lbs."

A small quantity of pepper seems to be annually exported from Ceylon, which I presume is the growth of that island; thus there were:—

54cwts.shipped in1842

83""1843

102""1844

In the Customs' returns of Ceylon, it is classed with cardamoms, and 160 to 170 cwt. of the two were shipped in each of the years 1850 and 1851. Last year the quantity was smaller.

Pepper cultivation has been introduced into the Mauritius, and in 1839 more than 500,000 lbs. were imported from thence, but as the shipments have since decreased, I presume it has given place to the more profitable staple sugar. I have been able to glean no information as to the progress it has made in the West Indies. In Cayenne it has been successfully carried on for many years; and large shipments of pepper have been made thence to France.

BLACK PEPPER EXPORTED FROM SINGAPORE.

Piculs.Value in rupees.

1841Total Exports66,810

"Growth of Singapore21,23147,674

1842Exports74,228

"Growth of Singapore32,27772,473

1843Exports57,883

"Growth of Singapore35,58579,900

1844Exports67,148

"Growth of Singapore42,995386,152

1845Exports65,892

"Growth of Singapore39,019350,443

1846Exports56,709

"Growth of Singapore35,712——

1847Exports60,994

"Growth of Singapore36,565328,397

Pliny, the naturalist, states that the price of pepper in the market of Rome in his time was, in English money, 9s. 4d. a pound, and thus we have the price of pepper at least 1,774 years ago. The pepper alluded to must have been the produce of Malabar, the nearest part of India to Europe that produced the article, and its prime cost could not have exceeded the present one, or about 2d. a pound. It would most probably have come to Europe by crossing the Indian and Arabian ocean, with the easterly monsoon, sailing up the Red Sea, crossing the desert, dropping down the Nile, and making its way along the Mediterranean by two-thirds of its whole length. This voyage, which in our times can be performed in a month, most probably then took eighteen. Transit and customs duties must have been paid over and over again, and there must have been plenty of extortion. All this will explain how pepper could not be sold in the Roman market under fifty-six times its prime cost. Immediately previous to the discovery of the route to India by the Cape of Good Hope, we find that the price of pepper in the markets of Europe had fallen to 6s a pound, or 3s. 4d. less than in the time of Pliny. What probably contributed to this fall, was the superior skill in navigation of the now converted Arabs, and the extension of their commerce to the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, which abounded in pepper. After the great discovery of Vasco de Gama, the price of pepper fell to about 1s. 3d. a pound, a fall of 8s. 1d. from that of the time of Pliny, and of 4s. 9d. from that of the Mahommedan Arabs, Turks, and Venetians.

In 1826, 14,000,000 lbs. of pepper were imported into the United Kingdom, of which about 5,500,000 were re-exported. In 1841, 15,000,000 lbs. were imported, of which 6,500,000 were re-shipped to other countries.

The home consumption, it will be seen, now averages about 3,250,000 lbs.:—

Imports lbs.Home consumption lbs.

18459,852,9843,209,718

18465,906,5863,299,955

18474,669,9302,966,022

18488,125,5453,185,337

18494,796,0423,257,911

18508,028,3193,170,883

18513,996,4963,303,403

18526,641,6993,524,501

The following return shows the number of bags of pepper imported into the United Kingdom, with the quantity retained for home consumption:—

Imports.Retained for home consumption.

Black. bagsWhite. bagsBlack. bagsWhite. bags

184337,8403,86121,1632,257

184460,7052,12323,5252,122

184580,6003,20830,2942,861

184737,1941,23628,7682,654

184865,5183,04231,6653,950

184943,6512,61632,2463,859

CHILLIES AND CAYENNE PEPPER.

Chillies or capsicum are long roundish taper pods, divided into two or three cells, full of small whitish seeds. When this fruit is fresh, it has a penetrating acrid smell; to the taste it is extremely pungent, and produces a most painful burning in the mouth. They are occasionally imported dry, and form the basis of Cayenne pepper; put in vinegar when green or ripe, they are an acceptable present in Europe. In Bengal the natives make an extract from the chillies, which is about the consistence and color of treacle.

The consumption of chillies in India is immense, as both rich and poor daily use them, and it is the principal ingredient in all chutnies and curries; ground into a paste, between two stones, with a little mustard, oil, ginger, and salt, it forms the only seasoning which the millions of poor in that country can obtain to eat with their insipid rice. They are worth in the Bombay market about 40s. the candy of 600 lbs.

Immense quantities of the capsicum are used by the native population of the West Indies, Africa, and Mexico; the consumption as a condiment being almost universal, and perhaps equal in quantity to salt. Ten barrels of these peppers were shipped from Montego Bay, Jamaica, in the first six months of 1851.

The wholesale price of chillies in the London market is from 15s. to 25s. the cwt., and there is a duty of 6d. per pound on them. Cayenne fetches 9d. to 2s. the pound.

Chilli is the Mexican name for all varieties of Capsicum. They are natives of the East and West Indies, and other hot climates. C. annuum is the species commonly noticed, but there seems to be numerous varieties, which by many are reckoned species. Thus, C. frutescens is a shrubby plant, which, along with C. minimum, supplies the variety called bird-pepper, it grows to a larger and more bushy size; C. baccatum has a globular fruit, and furnishes cherry or berry capsicum. They are all of the simplest culture, and may even be grown with very little care in England. Culture appears to increase the size, but to diminish the pungency of the fruit. In capsicums irritant properties prevail so as to obscure the narcotic action. Their acridity is owing to an oleaginous substance called capsicin. Cayenne pepper is used in medicine chiefly in the form of tincture, as a rubefacient and stimulant, especially in cases of ulcerated sore throat. It acts on the stomach as an aromatic condiment, and when preserved in acetic acid it forms chilli vinegar.

Red pepper may be considered one of the most useful vegetables in hygiene. As a stimulant and auxiliary in digestion it has been considered invaluable, especially in warm countries. A kind called the tobacco red pepper, is said to possess the most pungent properties of any of the species. It yields a small red pod, less than an inch in length, and longitudinal in shape, which is so exceedingly hot that a small quantity of it is sufficient to season a large dish of any food. Owing to its oleaginous character, it has been found impossible to preserve it by drying, but by pouring strong boiling vinegar on it a sauce or decoction can be made, which possesses in a concentrated form all the essential qualities of the vegetable. A single drop of this sauce will flavor a whole plate of soup or other food.

The "wort" or Cayenne pottage may be termed the national dish of the Abyssinians, as that, or its basis "dillock," is invariably eaten with their ordinary diet, the thin crumpet-like bread of teff or wheat flour. Equal parts of salt and the red cayenne pods are well powdered and mixed together with a little pea or bean meal to make a paste. This is called "dillock," and is made in quantities at a time, being preserved in a large gourd-shell, generally suspended from the roof. The "wort" is merely a little water added to this paste, which is then boiled over the fire, with the addition of a little fat meat and more meal to make a kind of porridge, to which sometimes is also added several warm seeds, such as the common cress or black mustard, both of which are indigenous in Abyssinia.—("Johnston's Abyssinia.")

A great quantity of Agi or Guinea pepper is grown in Peru, the natives being very fond of this condiment. It is not uncommon for an American Indian to make a meal of twenty or thirty pods of capsicum, a little salt, and a piece of bread, washed down by two or three quarts of chica, the popular beverage.

PIMENTO.

The pimento, Eugenia Pimento (Myrtus Pimenta), is a native of Mexico, and the West Indies. It flourishes spontaneously and in great abundance on the north side of the island of Jamaica; its numerous white blossoms mixing with the dark green foliage, and with the slightest breeze diffusing around the most delicious fragrance, give a beauty and a charm to nature rarely equalled, and of which he who has not visited the shady arbors and perfumed groves of the tropics can have little conception. This lovely tree, the very leaf of which when bruised emits a fine aromatic odor, nearly as powerful as that of the spice itself, has been known to grow to the height of from 30 to 40 feet, exceedingly straight, and having for its base the spinous ridge of a rock, eight or ten feet above the surface of the hill or mountain. A single tree has frequently produced 150 lbs. of the raw, or 100 lbs. of the dried fruit.

The fruit has an aromatic odor, and its taste combines that of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves; hence its common name of allspice. The fruit of Eugenia acris is used for pimento.

The trunk is of a grey color, smooth and shining, and altogether destitute of bark. It is luxuriantly clothed with leaves of a deep green, somewhat like those of the bay tree, and these leaves are, in the months of July and August, beautifully contrasted and relieved by an exuberance of white flowers. The leaves yield by distillation a delicate odoriferous oil, which is said to be sometimes passed off for oil of cloves.

The berries are gathered before they are ripe, and spread on a terrace, exposed to the sun for about a week, during which time they lose their green color, and acquire that reddish brown tint which renders them marketable. Some planters kiln-dry them. Like many of the minor productions of the tropics, pimento is exceedingly uncertain, and perhaps a very plenteous crop occurs but once in five years.

In 1800 there were 12,759 bags and 610 casks of pimento imported from Jamaica; in 1824 there were 33,308 bags and 599 casks shipped from the island; in 1829 the quantity exported was 6,069,127 lbs.

In the year ending October 1843, the export of pimento from Jamaica was 29,322 bags and 156 casks; in the year ending October 1844, 12,055 bags and 88 casks; in the year ending October 1845, 233 casks, valued at 30s. each, and 59,494 bags, valued at 20s.

From 1st January to 1st August, 1851, 128,277 lbs. pimento were shipped from the port of Montego Bay, Jamaica.

There was a very considerable pimento plantation made in Tobago, some years ago, by a Mr. Franklin, but it was abandoned by his sons, that they might attend the more exclusively to sugar culture.

Jamaica exported nearly two millions of pounds of pimento less, in the three years ending 1848, than she did in the three previous to the emancipation of the slaves. The number of pounds shipped annually, in these periods, is shown by the following figures:—

Year.lbs.

18305,560,620

18313,172,320

18324,024,800

18462,997,060

18472,800,140

18485,231,908

Pimento is imported into this country in bags of about 100 lbs. each. The imports have been:—

Year.Imports.Home consumption.

cwts.cwts.

184820,7734,230

184924,9943,419

185020,4483,467

185114,8403,935

185222,7083,872

The following is a statement of the imports from the West Indies, and the consumption of the United Kingdom, in pounds:—

Year.Imports.Entries for home consumption.

lbs.lbs.

18311,801,355305,739

18321,366,183296,197

18334,770,255330,890

18341,389,402320,719

18352,536,353343,942

18363,230,978400,941

18372,026,128383,401

1838892,974383,997

18391,071,511309,078

1840999,068338,969

1841797,757297,201

18421,643,318450,683

18432,028,658378,096

The imports have been, in—

bags.

184318,649

18442,408

184521,092

18479,649

184818,196

184914,108

Pimento is worth in the London market 6d. to 7d. per lb. The duty is 5s. per cwt.

VANILLA.

The fleshy, pod-like, odoriferous fruit of different species of Epidendrum constitute the substance called vanilla, which is used in confectionery for giving a delicious perfume to chocolate, liqueurs, &c. As an aromatic it is much sought after by confectioners, for flavoring ices and creams; and also by perfumers, liqueurists, and distillers. The best comes from the forests round the village of Zurtila, in the intendancy of Oaxaca, on the eastern slopes of the Cordillera of Anahuac, between the parallels of 19 deg. and 20 deg. N. All the vanilla which is used in Europe is imported from Mexico, Venezuela, and Vera Cruz.

It is a native of tropical America, and grows wild in Brazil, Peru, the banks of the Orinoco, and all places where heat, shade, and moisture prevail. There are many species indigenous to the Bahamas, Trinidad, Jamaica, Cuba, Dominica, Martinique and St. Vincent, which would produce considerable gain to the inhabitants if they would give themselves the trouble of cultivating or collecting its fruit.

This parasitical plant has a trailing stem, not unlike the common ivy, but not so woody, by which it attaches itself to the trunks of trees, and sucks the moisture which their bark derives from the lichens and other cryptogamia, but without drawing nourishment from the tree itself, like the misletoe and loranthus. The Indians in Mexico propagate it by planting cuttings at the foot of trees selected for that purpose. It rises to the height of 18 or 20 feet; the flowers are of a greenish yellow, mixed with white. The plant is subcylindrical about eight or ten inches long, of a yellow color when gathered, but dark brown or black when imported into Europe. It is one-celled siliquose, and pulpy within, wrinkled on the outside, and full of a vast number of seeds like grains of sand, having when properly prepared, a peculiar and delicious fragrance. It should be gathered before it is fully ripe.

Different species of vanilla are natives of Guiana, and it is found in large quantities along the banks of its rivers, and in the wooded districts which intersperse the savannahs. The oily and balsamic substance which the minute seeds possess, may be found to have medicinal qualities. Its cultivation can be connected with no difficulties; it needs only to plant the slips among trees, and to keep them clear of weeds. It would prove therefore a great addition to a cocoa plantation. In 1825 the price was, in Germany, sixty-six dollars (equal to £9) per pound, and twenty-five to thirty dollars are paid for it in Martinique.

Humboldt states that the annual value of vanilla exported from the state of Vera Cruz was 40,000 dollars, £8,000 sterling. Some vanilla is exported from Maranham. The cultivation of vanilla, which was introduced into Java in the year 1847, is said to have made considerable progress, there being now no fewer than thirty plantations.

The fruit of this orchideous plant is entirely neglected in the province of Caracas, though abundant crops of it might be gathered on the humid coast between Porto Cabello and Ocumare, especially at Turiamo, where the pods attain the length of nearly a foot. The English and American merchants often seek to make purchases at the port of La Guayra, but with difficulty procure it in small quantities.

In the valleys that descend from the chain of coast towards the Caribbean sea, in the province of Truxillo, as well as in the mission of Guiana, near the cataracts of the Orinoco, a great quantity of the vanilla pods might be collected, the produce of which would be still more abundant, if, according to the practice of the Mexicans, the plant were disentangled from time to time from the other creepers, with which it is intertwined and stifled.

When collected to prepare it for the market, about 12,000 of the pods are strung like a garland by their lower end, as near as possible to their foot-stalk; the whole are plunged for an instant into boiling water to blanch them; they are then hung up in the open air and exposed to the sun for a few hours. By some they are wrapped in woollen cloths to sweat. Next day they are lightly smeared with oil, by means of a feather or the fingers, and are surrounded with oiled cotton to prevent the valves from opening. As they become dry, on inverting their upper end they discharge a viscid liquor from it, and they are pressed several times with oiled fingers to promote its flow. The dried pods, like the berries of pepper, change color under the drying operation, grow brown, wrinkled, soft, and shrink to one-fourth of their original size. In this state they are touched a second time with oil, but very sparingly, because with too much oil they would lose some of their delicious perfume.

They are then packed for the market in small bundles of 50 or 100 in each, enclosed in lead foil, or tight metallic cases.

There are four local varieties, all differing in price and excellence; viz., the vanilla fina, the zacate, the rezacate, and the vasura.

One pod of vanilla is sufficient to perfume a pound and a half of cacao. It is with difficulty reduced to fine particles, but it may be sufficiently attenuated by cutting it into small bits, and grinding these along with sugar.

As it comes to us, vanilla is a capsular fruit, of the thickness of a swan's quill; straight, cylindrical, but somewhat flattened, truncated at the top, thinned off at the ends, glistening, wrinkled, furrowed lengthwise, flexible, from five to ten inches long, and of a reddish brown color. It contains a pulpy parenchyma, soft, unctuous, very brown, in which are embedded black, brilliant, very small seeds.

The kind most esteemed in France is called leq vanilla; it is about six inches long, from one-fourth to one-third of an inch broad, narrowed at the two ends and curved at the base; somewhat soft and viscid, of a dark reddish color, and of a most delicious flavor, like that of balsam of Peru. It is called vanilla giorees, when it is covered with efflorescences of benzcoin acid, after having been kept in a dry place, and in vessels not hermetically closed.

The second sort, called vanilla simarona, or bastard, is a little smaller than the preceding, of a less deep brown hue, drier, less aromatic, destitute of efflorescence. It is said to be the produce of the wild plant, and is brought from St. Domingo.

A third sort, which comes from Brazil, is the vanillon, or large vanilla of the French market; the vanilla pamprona or bova of the Spaniards. Its length is from five to six inches, its breadth from one-half to three-fourths of an inch. It is brown, soft, viscid, almost always open, of a strong smell, but less agreeable than the leq. It is sometimes a little spoiled by an incipient fermentation. It is cured with sugar, and enclosed in tin plate boxes, which contain from 20 to 60 pods[52]. The average annual import of vanilla into Havre, in the five years ending 1841, was about 16 boxes; in 1842 it was 30 packages.

TONQUIN BEANS.—The seeds of the Tongo tree (Dipterix odorata), a native of Guiana, are the well-known tonquin beans used to give a pleasant flavor to snuff.

TURMERIC.

This article of commerce is furnished by the branches of the rhizome or root-stock of the Curcuma longa, and C. rotunda, plants which are natives of Eastern Asia, but have been grown in England and the West Indies. They thrive well in a rich light soil, and are readily increased by offsets from the roots.

In the East Indies, where it is known as Huldee, turmeric is much employed in dyeing yellow, principally silks, but the color is very fugitive. It is also used medicinally as an aromatic carminative, and as a condiment; it enters into the composition of curry sauce or powder, and many other articles of Indian cookery. It is cordial and stomachic, and considered by the native doctors of India an excellent application in powder for cleansing foul ulcers.

It is grown in, and exported chiefly from, Bengal and Malabar, Madras, Java, and China. The turmeric of Java is in high estimation in the European markets, ranking next to that of China, and being much superior to that of Bengal. The seeds of Anethum Sowa, from their carminative properties, form an ingredient in curry powder.

The price of turmeric in London is from 12s. to 20s. per cwt., according to quality. The entries for home consumption are about 4,000 to 5,000 cwts. annually. It is better shipped in casks or cases than in bags.

A kind of arrowroot is prepared from C. angustifolia, another species of this tribe of plants.

Amaranthus gangiticus, and another species, are much cultivated by the Hindoos for their stews and curries.

The quantity and value of the curry stuff imported into Ceylon, chiefly from India, has been in the last few years as follows:—

Quantity.

Years.cwts.packages.Value.

1847——6,866

1848——9,981

184926,3471099,664

185024,3963007,267

185132,550—9,446

1852——9,039

What is comprised under the term "curry stuff," I am not aware, but it appears to be a bulky article, for it was imported to the extent of 32,000 cwt. in 1852.

There are two varieties of turmeric usually sent into Europe from the East (whence all the turmeric imported into Europe is obtained), the "long" turmeric (Curcuma longa), and the "round," or as it is better known the "Chinese turmeric." The latter description is very rare, the former is the common article of commerce. According to one of my correspondents, Mr. Hepburn, chemist, of Falmouth, Jamaica, the common or long turmeric is indigenous to that island, growing luxuriantly in the mountainous districts, in rather damp soils, its locality being in the vicinity of rivers, water-courses and springs. In this respect it differs from ginger, which requires a rather dry soil for its culture. I am not aware that this plant possesses the property of impoverishing the soil like the ginger. From the general habits of the plant in its natural state, we may gather the following rules for our guidance in its culture. The plants should be laid down in rows of five or six inches distant from each other, in a soil moderately damp, of an aluminous or clayey nature, and free to a great extent of the more soluble alkalies, potash and soda, as these, by absorption, may destroy the coloring matter of the plant, and so diminish its value as a dye-stuff. Finally, in preparing the roots for exportation, they should be cleansed from all earthy particles, exposed for drying in the shade, and without any further preparation bagged for shipment.

The coloring matter of turmeric is of an orange yellow color exceedingly delicate and capable of change, either from the action of light or of alkalies, which turn it to a dark brown color. It is slightly soluble in water, and readily soluble in an alkaline solution, becoming dark brown. Alcohol extracts the coloring matter. The uses to which turmeric is applied are two: as an ingredient in the curry powder and paste, and as a dye for silk. It was some time ago used as a medicine; but though retained in the "Pharmacopœias" of the present day, it is entirely discarded by the practitioner as a curative agent. The best Bengal and Malabar turmeric fetches a price nearly as high as that of ginger, and I see no reason why the West India planter could not send it into the British market quite as cheap as the East India trader. According to Dallas, 397 bags of turmeric were exported from Jamaica in 1797.

Turmeric is grown about the city of Patna and Behar. It is much cultivated about Calcutta and all parts of Bengal. One acre yields about 2,000 lbs. of the fresh root. It is also grown on the central table land of Afghanistan. The exports from Calcutta in 1841 were 11,000 Indian maunds, and 28,137 in 1842. The value of that exported from Madras in 1839 was 40,000 rupees, or £4,000; in 1840, £4,200. The quantity shipped from that Presidency in 1850 was 6,877 bags.

In the neighbourhood of Dacca about 200 lbs. of seed is sown to the beegah, measuring 80 cubits by 80, and the yield is from 640 to 800 lbs.

140 tons were imported into Liverpool in 1849, for dyeing and for curries; 414 tons in 1850; 11,554 bags and packages in 1851; and only 3,595 ditto in 1852. The price in January 1853 was, for Bengal, 10s. to 12s.; China, 12s. to 14s., and Malabar 9s. to 12s. the cwt. The imports into London were 18 tons in 1848, 191 in 1849, and 980 in 1850. The deliveries for consumption, 192 tons in 1848, 270 in 1849, and 870 tons in 1850.

In China turmeric is used with Prussian blue in coloring and facing tea.

GINSENG

The produce of this plant, as an article of commerce, is confined to our transatlantic neighbours, who have the monopoly of the supply to China.

The root of Panax quinquefolium, the American ginseng, is much esteemed by the Chinese, for certain supposed beneficial effects upon the nerves, and for other presumed virtues; but our physicians have not discovered any proofs of its efficacy in Europe. The plant is an herbaceous perennial, growing upon the confines of Tartary and China, near the great wall. It is found wild, flourishing in moist situations, and attains the height of from two to three feet; it is also now produced largely in the northern, middle, and western States of the Union, particularly Virginia, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania, and a considerable trade is carried on with it to China. A variety of the plant was discovered, a few years ago, in the Himalaya mountains, and small quantities have been thence sent to Canton. It is also found growing in Canada. The root is about three or four inches in length, and one inch in thickness. It resembles a small carrot, but not so taper at the end, and is sometimes single, sometimes divided into two branches. The stem is striated, without branches, and of a red color near the root. The leaves, from four to six of which surround the stem where they form sheaths (bracteal), are simply pinnate. The flower stalk is long and green, the inflorescence a simple umbel. The fruit is a berry of a red color, and contains two seeds of the size of mustard seed. The officinal root differs in appearance, according to the country from which it is brought. In Korea and China it is white, corrugated when dry, and covered with a powder resembling starch. In Mandscharia and Dauria it is yellow, smooth and transparent, and when cut resembles amber. The taste of the root is bitter. Crude ginseng now sells in the Canton market at 70 to 80 dollars per picul of 133 lbs., and cured or clarified root at 130 to 140 dollars.

The stem of the plant, which is renewed every year, leaves, as it falls off, an impression upon the neck of the root, so that the number of these rings or marks indicates the age of the plant, and the value of the root increases accordingly. The Chinese government were formerly in the habit of sending out annually 30,000 Tartar soldiers to search for the plant, and each was obliged to bring home two ounces of the root gratis, and for all above that quantity he was paid its weight in silver. The Asiatic ginseng is said to be obtained from the root of P. Schinseng of Nees von Esenbeck, P. Pseudo ginseng of Wallich. This root might be procured in Prince Edward's Island and some of the other British North American colonies.

I have been able to trace, after some labor and research, the progressive exports of this curious article of trade from the United States.

In 1790, 813 casks, of the value of 47,025 dollars, were exported; and in 1791, 29,208 lbs. From 1803 to 1807, the annual value of ginseng shipped was about 123,000 dollars, and from 1820 to 1830, it averaged 157,000 dollars.

The following figures show the value of the article in subsequent years:—1831, 115,921 dollars; year ending 30th September, 1835, 94,960 dollars; 1837, 212,899 lbs., valued at 108,548 dollars; 1840, 22,728 dollars; 1841, 437,245 dollars.

The quantity shipped in 1839, from Philadelphia alone, was 317,443 lbs. In 1841, 637,885 lbs. were exported from the United States.

The value of that exported in the years ending 30th June, was 1844, 95,008 in dollars, and in 1845, 117,146 dollars; 110,000 lbs. were collected at Toledo, Ohio, in 1845. The value of the exports in the following years, ending June 30th, were—1847, 64,466 dollars; 1849, 162,640; 1849, 182,966; 1850, 122,916 dollars.

CORIANDER, CARRAWAY, AND OTHER SEEDS.

The fruits of anise, carraway, coriander, &c., (erroneously called seeds,) are in demand for various purposes.

CARRAWAY SEED is imported to the extent of 500 tons annually from Germany and Holland, the price being about 33s. per cwt. It is also now much grown in Essex and Kent. In the years 1848 and 1849, 7,000 cwt. of this seed was imported, of which nearly the whole quantity was retained for home consumption.

CORIANDER SEED is chiefly used by distillers, to produce an aromatic oil. The quantity imported annually does not exceed 50 tons, and it is brought principally to the port of Hull. It is also cultivated in Suffolk, Essex and Kent.

Of MUSTARD SEED the aggregate quantity imported annually is about 2,000 tons for home consumption, and the flour is used as a well-known condiment to food, &c., and in medicine; the average price being about 9d. per pound.

ANISE.—The fruit of Pimpinilla anisum, under the name of aniseed, is principally imported from Alicant and Germany (the first is preferred), but some is also brought from the East Indies. It is an annual plant, largely cultivated in Spain, Malta, and various parts of Germany, and also in the island of Scio, Egypt, and parts of Asia. The imports are not large; 192 cwts. paid duty in 1833, and 315 cwts. in 1840. About 60 cwts. are annually received at Hull from Germany. It is used to flavor liqueurs, sweetmeats, and confectionery of various kinds. Oil of aniseed is obtained by distillation from the fruit, and 1,544 lbs. were imported in 1839. About two pounds of oil are obtained from one hundred-weight of seed.

STAR ANISE, Illicum anisatum, is a native of the countries extending from 23½ deg. to 35 deg. of north latitude, or from Canton to Japan. The capsules constitute in India a rather important article of commerce, and are sold in all the bazaars. Large quantities are also used in Europe in the preparation of liqueurs. 695 piculs of star aniseed were exported from Canton in 1850, valued at 8,200 Spanish dollars. 81 piculs of oil of aniseed were exported from Canton in 1845, and 105 piculs in 1850, valued at 11,900 dollars. 3,000 piculs of aniseed are exported annually from Cambodia.

PUTCHUK, OR COSTUS.

The substance called costus was highly prized by the ancients, and specimens may be met with at a few of the London drug-houses. It has been shown by Dr. Falconer to be the produce of a genus of the thistle tribe, to which he has given the name of Aucklandia. The root of A. Costus is supposed to be the Costus Arabicus, on the following grounds:—It corresponds with the descriptions given by the ancient authors, and is used at the present day for the same purposes in China, as costus was formerly applied to by the Greeks. The coincidence of the names—in Cashmere the root is called koot, and the Arabic synonym is said to be koost. It grows in immense abundance on the mountains which surround Cashmere. It is a gregarious herb, about six or seven feet high, with a perennial thick branched root, with an annual round smooth stem, large leaves and dark purple flowers. The roots are dug up in the months of September and October, when the plant begins to be torpid; they are chopped up into pieces, from two to six inches long, and are exported without further preparation. The quantity collected, according to Dr. Falconer, is very large, amounting to about two million pounds per annum. The cost of its collection and transport to a mercantile depot in Cashmere, is about 2s. 4d. the cwt. The commodity is laden on bullocks and exported to the Punjaub, whence the larger portion goes down to Bombay, where it is shipped for the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and China; a portion of it finds its way across the Sutlej and Jumna into Hindostan Proper, whence it is taken to Calcutta, and bought up there with avidity under the name of putchuk. The value is enhanced at Jugadree, on the Jumna, to about 16s. 9d. or 23s. 4d. per cwt. In the Chinese ports it fetches nearly double that price the cwt. The Chinese burn the roots as an incense in the temples of their gods, and they also attach great efficacy to it as an aphrodisiac. The imports into Canton in 1848 were 414 piculs; in 1850, 854 piculs; valued at 5,150 dollars. In Cashmere it is chiefly used for the protection of bales of shawls from insects. The exports from the port of Calcutta were, in 1840-41, 19,660 maunds; in 1841-42, 12,847; in 1847-48, 2,050¼; in 1848-49, 2,110¾;—worth about £1,500 annually.

Specimens of amboyna wood, the odoriferous sandal wood from Timor, clove wood, and other choice woods from the Moluccas and Prince of Wales Island, were sent home to the Great Exhibition in 1851.

LIGNUM ALOES, the eagle wood and Calambak of commerce, yielding an aromatic perfume, is furnished by the Aquilaria malaccensis, and agallocha, in Silhet, an ornamental evergreen shrub. A very high artificial value is placed on the better qualities of this product by the natives of the East; the best quality being worth about £14 the picul of 133 lbs.

This fragrant wood is probably the lign aloes of the Bible.

Incense to the value of nearly one million and a quarter francs was exported from Alexandria in 1837.

Calambak or eagle wood, the true lignum aloes so highly esteemed in the East as a perfume or incense, is said to be produced by the Alœxylum agallochum, Lour. This remarkable wood contains a large quantity of an odoriferous oleo-resin; when heated it undergoes a sort of imperfect fusion, and exhales a fragrant and very agreeable odor. Its price in Sumatra is about £30 per cwt. Inferior specimens are obtained at Malacca. Eagle wood is also obtained from several other trees. The true eagle wood is however very scarce.