SPICES
THEIR NATURE AND GROWTH
THE VANILLA-BEAN
A TALK ON TEA
McCORMICK & CO.
Importers and Grinders of Spices
Manufacturing Chemists Importers of Tea
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
Copyright, 1915, by
McCormick & Co., Baltimore, Md.
[Illustration: MUNDER THOMSEN PRESS, BALTIMORE]
Dedicated to Domestic Science and to those who are devoting their
energy, talent and time to the dissemination of that knowledge which
makes for purer and better foods—to the Domestic Science Teachers of
America.
In response to hundreds of requests from schools, colleges and
individuals for information regarding the different varieties of Spices
we have prepared this booklet, and have endeavored to give as concisely
as possible the facts necessary to a thorough understanding of the
subject.
As there has hitherto been no complete compilation along this line, it
has been necessary to obtain from foreign sources much of the material,
while some of the illustrations represent weeks of patient research by
our art department.
To the U. S. Department of Agriculture we are indebted for much valuable
information, and for this we wish to make due acknowledgment.
[Illustration: (Capsicums)]
Chillie or Guinea Pepper
Japan
Bombay
Spanish
Paprika Pod
(Chillies) Mombassa Japan
(White) Muntok Singapore
Pod Pepper
Black Pepper
Tellicherry
Long Pepper
Aleppy
Lampong
½ Natural size
Pepper and Capsicums
Pepper is the dried berry of the pepper-plant (_Piper nigrum_), a
climbing vine ten to twelve feet high, indigenous to the East Indies,
but cultivated in many tropical countries.
[Illustration: A Group of Pepper Mills]
The berries are harvested when they begin to turn red, and the process
of drying out blackens and shrivels them. They are not picked
separately, but in spikes or bunches, and are then placed on mats to
dry. At night the berries are placed under cover.
The average yield per vine is eight to ten pounds each year.
The different varieties of Black Pepper derive their name from the
localities in which they are grown or the ports whence they are shipped,
as Singapore, Lampong, Sumatra, Tellicherry, Acheen, Malabar, Trang,
etc.