The plant
begins to bear in the second year.
White pepper is not a natural production, but is obtained by dipping
the black pepper several times in sea-water: this causes it to lose
its colour, and become a dirty white. The price of a pikul of white
pepper is six dollars (24s.), whereas that of a pikul of black is
only three dollars (12s.).
The greatest height attained by the gambir plant is eight feet. The
leaves alone are used in trade: they are first stripped off the
stalk, and then boiled down in large coppers. The thick juice is
placed in wide wooden vessels, and dried in the sun; it is then cut
into slips three inches long and packed up. Gambir is an article
that is very useful in dyeing, and hence is frequently exported to
Europe. Pepper plantations are always to be found near a plantation
of the gambir plant, as the former are always manured with the
boiled leaves of the latter.
Although all the work on the plantations, as well as every other
description of labour at Singapore, is performed by free labourers,
I was told that it cost less than if it were done by slaves.
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