[Illustration: SINGAPORE (City of the Lion)] [Illustration: VIEW IN HARBOR OF PENANG FROM STEAMER LOOKING NORTHWEST Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N. Y.] It is hard to estimate the amount of black pepper used each year, but it is very great. The United States consumes more spices pro rata than any other country. This fact is well known by exporters after long experience, and now many spices are shipped direct to the United States ports instead of by the way of London. The chief use of pepper is that of a spice added principally to meats, but also to other food substances. Pepper is sometimes used for medicinal purposes, as it stimulates the stomach on account of the piperine it contains, and thus aids in digestion. In removing ringworms it has few equals. The native doctors of India consider it a stimulant, and they prescribe an infusion of the toasted berries in cases of cholera morbus; it will check violent vomiting in that disease when many other remedies fail. They also prepare a liniment from pepper which they think has sovereign virtue in chronic rheumatism. In Europe it is sometimes used as a stimulant in gout and palsy, and the watery infusion has proved a useful gargle in relaxation of the uvula. The dose of black pepper should be about six grains. The chief enemies of the pepper vine are white ants, the black bug and white bug, the borer, male crickets, and the Cinchana caterpillar. A strong solution of tuba root is sufficient to keep away white ants, and tuba root mixed with juice of common tobacco will prevent the black and white bug work, and in mild cases ashes or sulphur and lime applied early in the morning will be found sufficient. The borer begins by attacking the joints of the branches and its presence is known by the light yellowish color of the bark. There is no known preventive for the borer, except to catch it before it has gone too far. It always works around the joints, and when it has completed the circle, it commences to bore down the center of the branch, and sometimes, but very seldom, the stem. The male cricket goes for the roots, but does the least damage; if it has gone too far to be dug out, the best way is to plug up its hole as far as possible with clay. The green Cinchana caterpillar attacks the leaves only, but may destroy many of them; the only plan to make way with it is to send a coolie around to collect and destroy the insects.