few ig yielded 200,000 ibs weight of Nutmegs, and 50,000 tbs 
of Mace. 
In the Moluccas, the Dutch appear to have been totally ignor- 
ant of the diccious nature of the trees, and of the cause of steri- 
lity in so many of them. Where the trees are very abundant, 
this is a matter of comparatively trifling importance: but, in 
colonies where but few plants have been introduced, it is not only 
of essential consequence that the female flowers should be fertil- 
ized by the male, but that the male plants should be employed in 
the most ceconomical manner. This has been achieved by M. 
Joseru Husert, in the Isle of France, in the most successful 
manner. Ascertaining that one male plant is sufficient for a 
hundred females, he resolved ‘upon grafting the seedling stock 
of all his plantations in that proportion, in the second year 
of their growth: by this means, there are no superfluous trees, 
and they come into bearing the sooner *. According to the old 
method, the trees did not bear flowers till the seventh or eighth 
year; and it was not till that period, that the useless trees could 
be removed. 
In our West Indian colonies, the Nutmeg was introduced about 
thirty years ago; and, first, to the island of St. Vincent, from 
Cayenne, though not without great difficulty, on account of the 
extreme jealousy of the inhabitants of that colony, the two coun- 
tries being then at war with each other. The three trees which 
were originally imported have borne fruit for many years, and 
have attained the height of twenty feet, with a trunk eight or 
nine inches in diameter. It does not, however, appear, that the 
culture of the Nutmeg succeeds so well in the West, as in the 
East Indies. Mr. Lockuart, who has the charge of the plants 
introduced into the island of Trinidad, by his Excellency Sir 
Ratrx Wooprorp, observes, in a letter to me, that the plants 
flourish best in the rainy season; even when moderate showers 
fall requiring constantly artificial watering; although a soil 
saturated with moisture is injurious. For a long time, though 
the trees introduced into St. Vincent produced abundance of 
flowers, they bore small crops of fruit, until Mr. Guinp1ne re- 
commended the same process as is employed with the caprification 
of the Fig, when the crops were much more productive, two trees, 
at one period, bearing three hundred ripe fruits. The process of 
grafting adopted in the Mauritius might be employed, re, 
to still greater advantage. Female flowers, which had reached 
perfection on the 20th of June, became ripe fruit from the 6th to 
the 12th of February following; this is the case, at least, in the 
island of St. Vincent, according to Mr. Gu1np1Ne ; who, further 
| observes 
—_ 
—, 
* My friend, Mr. Teurarr, has been so good as to communicate to me, 
from the Mauritius, an interesting account of the culture of the Nutmeg in 
that country, in the “ Archives de I'Isle de France,” and entitled, “ Sur la 
culture du Muscadier, par feu M. de Cossieny,” in which the method 1 have 
here related is detailed. 
