jl/NE 1, 1887,] 



THE tROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



m 



the soil and climate cf the clove is may be gathered 

 from this well-known fact, that, in the parent islands, 

 the tree yields fruit in the seventh and eight year of its 

 growth, and grows almost spontaneously without care 

 or culture, whereas, at Ambouya, where it is an ex- 

 otic, it does not bear until the tenth and twelfth year, 

 and demands very considerable attention. 



The clove neither thrives well near the sea, where 

 it suffers from the spray, nor in the higher mountains, 

 where it suffers from the cold. The soil which suits 

 it, is a dark loam, having underneath a layer of dusky 

 yellow earth, intermixed with gravel. A sandy soil, a 

 hardy clay, and the wet ground in which sedges grow 

 are to be avoided. The tree may be propagated either 

 directly from the mother cloves, or by transplanting 

 the young plants found in the clove gradens from the 

 natural propagation of the seed. The plants raised 

 by the first method grow luxuriantly, but are alleged 

 to yield more leaves than fruit, and growing remark- 

 ably straight, to be difficult to climb for the purpose 

 of reaping the harvest. The trees propagated by 

 the latter method are prefferred, but the culture is 

 laborious, and the success of the operation . uncertain 

 until the plants have attained the heigh of five or 

 six feet. The young plants at first require the shade 

 of other trees, and must therefore be planted among 

 them. As they grow up the other plants , must be 

 removed, leaving here and there a few fruit trees, 

 Buch as the Kanari and the coconut, &c. ; the neigh- 

 bourhood of which, it has been discovered, is favour- 

 able to the clove. The clove trees must themselves be 

 kept pruned, and care be taken that they are not 

 choked with weeds, or by too many of the fruit trees 

 just mentioned, in failure of which attention the plants 

 will languish, or degenerate into wild cloves. 



Such is the culture requisite in Amboyna, a soil and 

 climate foreign to the plant, where comparatively much 

 care and attention are required. In its native country, 

 on the contrary the clove grows luxuriantly and almost 

 spontaneously, being propagated and coming to perfec- 

 tion with hardly any culture. In its native country, the 

 clove tree as already mentioned begins to yield fruit 

 in the seventh or eighth year, but at Amboyna not 

 until the tenth or twelfth. 



Examples are given of clove trees living to the age 

 of one hundred and thirty years, but the ordinary 

 duration of its life in Amboyna does not average above 

 seventy five. Much depends upon the nature of the 

 soil and ground in which the tree has taken root. 



The clove, though generally a hardy plant, suffers 

 from excessive drought, and is apt to be destroyed by 

 the depredations of a worm which insinuates itself into 

 the wood and kills the tree. In particular seasons 

 thousands perish from this cause. 



The reaping of the clove, harvest is perfectly simple. 

 AVhen the fruit begins to grow red, the reaping is 

 begun. The ground underneath the tree is clean swept. 

 The nearest clusters are taken off with the hand, and 

 the more distant with the assistance of croaked sticks. 

 Great care is necessary that the trees, in this ope-- 

 ation, should not be rudely handled, as an injury offered 

 to them in this way, would prevent them from bearing 

 for years. The curing of the cloves consists in placing 

 them for some days on hurdles, where they are 

 smoked by a slow wood fire, which gives them a brown 

 colour, and afterwards drying them in the sun, when 

 they turn black, as we see them, in the article of com- 

 tnerce. In some places they are scalded in hot water 

 before being smoked, but this practice is not common. 

 Such cloves as casually fall on the ground, and are 

 picked up in small quantities, the cultivators do rot 

 think it worth while to subject to the process of 

 smoking, and they are merely dried in the sun : they 

 are discoverable by their shrivelled apperance, and are 

 of inferior value. The period of harvest is from Oct- 

 ober to December. 



Of the fecundity of the clove it is not very easy to 

 speak distinctly. The produce from one year to another 

 is very unequal. At intervals of from three to six years 

 they usually yield one extraordinary crop, but then 

 a year now and then intervenes when they do not 

 V)eaT »t »U. At etbei^ time«; »g»iu; </b«y will givs a 



double harvest. Some extraordinary instances of fecund- 

 ity in particular trees are quoted. Rumphius and 

 Valentyu speak of a remarkable tree, a hundred and 

 thirty years old, which one year gave the enormous 

 crop of eleven hundred pounds and another year half 

 this quantity. About the propotion of two-thirds of a 

 clove cultivation is considered to be bearing trees, the 

 remaining third being allowed for barren and young 

 trees. According to the present mode of culture, per- 

 haps, it would not be safe to average the production 

 of all trees at above five pounds. 



According to the data, the produce of an acre will 

 be 375 lb. avoirdupois, and deducting one-eighth for 

 young trees under ten years, 32S lb. By a free culture, 

 as in the case of pepper, a much larger produce than 

 is here stated would, no doubt, be obtained. — Indian 

 Aariculturist, 



New York Experimental Station.— The fifth annual 

 report is now before us, comprising a record of the 

 work done at the station, meteorological details, re- 

 sults of experiments, &c. The object of the station 

 is to ascertain and apply the principles of natural 

 history to the profitable cultivation of plants or the 

 maintenance of animals. Passing the experiments 

 on cattle feeding as not coming within our scope, 

 we may mention a few of the more important matters 

 discussed, such, for instance, as the relation of soil 

 temperature to produce, in which it is shown that 

 for the cultivation of Potatoes a relatively cool soil 

 is favourable. In the case of Lettuces, a cross be- 

 tween the Red-edged Victoria and the Deer-tongue, 

 thel atter yielding the pollen, resulted in the produc- 

 tion of seedlings referable to seven differnt types, 

 the most interesting being one which reproduced the 

 characters of the wild Lettuce, Lactuca scariola. 

 Mr. C. S. Plumb gives a summary of his efforts to 

 classify and arrange the synonymy of a large number 

 of varieties of Wheat and Oats. A curious corelation 

 is mentioned between the number of rows in the ear 

 of Barley and the tendency to tiller; thus in the 

 two- rowed varieties the maximum number of plants 

 that tillered was 28-00, while in the six-rowed varie- 

 ties the tendency to tiller was less, i.e., 18 '00 ; so the 

 open-panicled Oat averages more fruitful culms per 

 plant than the side panicled variety. The winter 

 Oats tiller far more than tha summer varieties. Mr. 

 Goff, the horticulturist, reports on Potatoes, root 

 growth orchards. Grapes, Tomatoes, insects, the in- 

 fluence of foreign pollen on fruit, &c. A Potato 

 known as "Buffalo Bill" was found to be the most 

 productive. It is calculated that this variety yielded 

 at the rate of 275 bushels per acre. As regards the 

 question of the relative produce of cut sets or whole 

 tul-ers for planting, the difference was markedly in 

 favour of the latter. With a view of testing whether 

 regularity of form can be secured by careful selection 

 of tubers, eyes were taken from the most ill-shaped 

 tubers that could be got, and others from the most 

 symmetrical tubers. It was found, however, in the 

 result, that there was no material difference either 

 one way or the other in the character of the produce. 

 The observations on roet growth have been con- 

 tinued, some interesting details being given aa to tho 

 length, ramification, depth below the surface, <.Vc. 

 A root of Vegetable Marrow was measured to a horizontal 

 length of 10 feet when it was unfortunately broken, 

 evidently at a long distance from its extremity. 

 The chief feeding ground for the roots seems to be 

 between 3 and 10 inches below the surface, though 

 others go mach deeper ; the plants that make the largest 

 development of stem or foliage during the summer 

 are those of which the feeding ground is shallowest 

 in the soil. Experiments made to determine what, 

 if any, influence on the fruit is caused by the applic- 

 ation of stranger pollen, led, as in former years, to 

 no definite result. Mr. Arthur's report on the Bean 

 blight (Micrococcus .amylovorus) has already been 

 mentioned in our columns. The report concludes with 

 the record of the work done by the cbetoisti,-* 

 Gurdtners' ChrenicU, 



