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 L36,357 for every
five hundred tons, and the loss by wastage was estimated at L5,405.
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