are made.

* * * * *


WHITE PEPPER.


The relative value of black and white pepper is but imperfectly
understood. The former is decidedly the best. It grows in long, small
clusters of from 20 to 50 grains. When ripe, it is of a bright red
colour. After being gathered, it is spread on mats in the sun, when it
loses its red colour, and becomes black and shrivelled as we see it.
White pepper is of two sorts, common and genuine. The former is made by
blanching the grains of the common black pepper, by steeping them for a
while in water, and then gently rubbing them, so as to remove the dark
outer coat. It is milder than the other, and much prized by the Chinese,
but very little is imported into England. _Genuine_ white pepper is
merely the blighted or imperfect grains picked from among the heaps of
black pepper. It is, of course, very inferior.

From the Singapore Chronicle we learn, that the average annual quantity
of pepper obtained from different countries is 46,066,666 lbs,
avoirdupois.

* * * * *