age of maturity will shrivel the least; but, if
plucked too soon, it will in a short time, by removal from place to
place, become mere dust. Of this defect trial may be made by the hand;
but as light pepper may have been mixed with the sound it becomes
necessary that the whole should be garbled at the scale by machines
constructed for the purpose. Pepper that has fallen to the ground
overripe and been gathered from thence will be known by being stripped of
its outer coat, and in that state is an inferior kind of white pepper.

WHITE PEPPER.

This was for centuries supposed in Europe to be the produce of a
different plant, and to possess qualities superior to those of the common
black pepper; and accordingly it sold at a considerably higher price. But
it has lost in some measure that advantage since it has been known that
the secret depended merely upon the art of blanching the grains of the
other sort, by depriving it of the exterior pellicle. For this purpose
the ripest red grains are picked out and put in baskets to steep, either
in running water (which is preferred), in pits dug for the occasion near
the banks of rivers, or in stagnant pools. Sometimes it is only buried in
the ground. In any of these situations it swells, and in the course of a
week or ten days bursts its tegument, from which it is afterwards
carefully separated by drying in the sun, rubbing between the hands, and
winnowing. It has been much disputed, and is still undetermined, to which
sort the preference ought to be given. The white pepper has this obvious
recommendation, that it can be made of no other than the best and
soundest grains, taken at their most perfect stage of maturity: but on
the other hand it is argued that, by being suffered to remain the
necessary time in water, its strength must be considerably diminished;
and that the outer husk, which is lost by the process, has a peculiar
flavour distinct from that of the heart, and though not so pungent, more
aromatic. For the white pepper the planter receives the fourth part of a
dollar, or fifteen pence, per bamboo or gallon measure, equal to about
six pounds weight. At the sales in England the prices are at this time in
the proportion of seventeen to ten or eleven, and the quantity imported
has for some years been inconsiderable.

APPEARANCE OF THE GARDENS.

The gardens being planted in even rows, running parallel, and at right
angles with each other, their symmetrical appearance is ver