The land is fenced by mud walls made into terraces. The vines need support, for if they are not supported they will spread over the ground with the result that there will be much loss of fruit.
When posts are used, as is the case on the Island of Borneo, they should be twelve feet long and eight inches square, with the lower end tarred for two feet, to prevent decaying in the ground. The plantation will then have the appearance of a hop field. But there are many disadvantages in connection with the post support, as the posts must be reset at intervals (much oftener than the vines) and the removing of the post disturbs the aerial roots of the vine, which cling to them. Even if the vine be trained to its new post, it will take some time for it to attach sufficiently to receive any support or nourishment. As the poles furnish little or no shade, a severe drought will largely ruin the plants. For these reasons the use of posts has not proved a success. Different countries use different growing trees for the support, thus securing shade protection as well. Many kinds of trees are used. One of these is the mango or the bread tree, which will yield the planter one crop of fruit each year in addition to the pepper crop; but the bread tree (artocarpus-incioa), being of slow growth, should not be used for a support until it is twelve years old. The Jack tree (artocarpus-integrifolia) is sometimes used in Malabar as a second choice, but its fruit is diminished in quantity and quality by the pressure of the pepper, and sometimes the monkeys will pull them out or the crickets nip off the tops. The erythrina-Indica (erythrina coroilodendron), a thorn tree called by the natives chingkariang, is much used in Sumatra for an early support. It grows quickly and is easily started by simply sticking a large branch in the ground in the rainy season. It will be capable of supporting the vine in one year, but it will soon be killed by the growing vine, not lasting more than twelve years. For this reason the mango or bread tree is planted beside it and when the erythrina-Indica tree dies out the first choice mango tree (manganifera-Indica) is ready to take its place and will furnish support for the vine for twenty years. Moreover, the fruit of the tree will not be affected by the growing vines. Plantations are set on the tilled land from July to August about twelve paces apart. In February and March the supporting trees are planted forty feet apart. They are kept well watered during the dry season, and when ten feet high are topped and kept trimmed or the leaves are picked off so as not to shade the plant too much. If the pepper garden is small, the vines may be planted near the trees already growing. Plants raised from the seed in nurseries are transplanted in May or June, being placed in the prepared holes five feet apart with their root end from the tree and with the growing perennial vine top directed towards its support. The root should be as far distant as possible from the support. If the plants are of slow growth, manure may be applied to the surface of the ground. In China burnt earth and rotten fish are used. The land must be kept free from weeds and the plants must be kept well watered on alternate days in the dry season.
The pepper vines are trained to their support in October and November. They may begin to bear fruit the first year, but do not yield much until the third or fourth year. The hoeing, training, and fertilizing are kept up twice each year in October and November and July and August. The moist earth should be heaped up and well tramped down about the plant. When the vines are six feet high they will cling to the trees without further training. The vines will bear for about fourteen years and even thirty years sometimes in extra good soil, but when past fourteen years they will usually decline in vigor and fruitfulness. The vine, after topping, is from eight to ten feet long, but if left to grow its full length will be from twenty to thirty feet long and will go to wood and bear less fruit, and the fruit would be difficult to gather. When cuttings are to be used for planting, at least three should be placed in each hole with six inches under ground or four inches above ground, the portion above ground to be directed towards the support. The plantation is next covered with leaves, dried grass, or weeds as a protection from the sun and to keep the earth moist and cool.
The vines grow rapidly if it is wet weather. When they have run up the support two feet, the ends are nipped off so as to cause lateral branches to start out. In some places, when the vines are from a year to eighteen months old and have grown five feet up the support, they are carefully detached and the ends, having been coiled up in a spiral form, are buried in a hole dug in the ground close to its roots, except a small surface of the stem. This process is called letting down. It insures a large crop, producing seven or more vines to one supporting tree. Plants raised from cuttings will only bear from seven to eight years, but the quantity and quality of the pepper is far superior to that raised from the seed.
The planting of the cuttings in baskets is often carried on in the following manner: The cuttings, which are about eighteen inches long, are put half a dozen in a basket; at higher altitudes more are used, sometimes as many as ten or twelve. The basket is then filled with earth and is buried at the foot of the supporting tree, care being taken that they do not touch. In October and November the ground around the baskets is dug up and the vines are manured with cow dung and leaves. The baskets are said to be a great protection to the young vines and they insure much better results. The end of the vine makes the best cutting, as it is a growing terminal bud. Vines growing wild, such as are indigenous to the forests of Malabar and Travancore, are left planted with the forest trees for their support. The surplus shade and underbrush are cut out and the ground is weeded, old vines being replaced by young ones. The product raised in this way is about as good as the cultivated.
A pepper garden is generally planted with plenty of room for roads, so as to secure easy access to all parts of it and with the least possible grade, which should not be more than one foot in twenty. The garden contains anywhere from five to fifteen acres and is divided into plots by hedges of shrubs, each plot containing from five hundred to one thousand plants. The plants are pruned or thinned by hand as they grow bushy at the top, when the flexible stems generally entwine at the top of their support and then bend downward, having their extremities as well as their branches loaded with fruit. It matters not how many stalks grow from the same root until the vine begins to bear fruit, but when fruit bearing begins only one or two stems should be left, as more would weaken the root and it would not, for that reason, bear as abundantly. All suckers and side shoots must be carefully removed. Trenches are cut to the neighbor props where the vines have failed, and through these trenches superfluous shoots are conducted, where they soon ascend around the adjacent tree. By this means the plantation is of a uniform growth, and, since the ground is kept well weeded and is elevated, and since there is an open border of twelve feet wide around each garden, there is given to the plantation an admirable symmetry and neatness of appearance.
HARVESTING OF BLACK PEPPER
COAST NEAR MANGALORE