NUT.MEGS AXD MACE. 9 



regarding this monopolising policy are given in Crawford's 

 History of the Indian Archipelago, I., p. 505 ; II., p. 437 ; 

 and III., p. 406. 



The tree is found wild on the islands of Jilolo, Cerani, Amboina, 

 Bouro, in the western peninsula of Xew Guinea and the adjacent 

 islands, including the small volcanic group situated to the south of 

 Ceram, but it is not indigenous to islands further westward 

 or to the Philippine islands. It has been successfully introduced 

 at Bencoolen, on the west coast of Sumatra ; at Malacca, the 

 islands of Ternate and Menado in the Celebes group; Java, 

 Penang, Singapore, Bourbon, Zanzibar, and some of the West 

 Indian Islands, also into Beno-al and into Brazil. Manv laro-e 

 plantations (called Xutmeg Parks) are established, but the 

 cultivation has only proved successful in a few^ of the localities 

 into which it has been introduced. 



In its native habitat the tree commences to bear fruit when 

 between seven and nine years old, and continues to yield a crop 

 for sixty and even eighty years : the annual yield of each female 

 tree being about 2000 nuts. It is considered that one male 

 tree is sufficient for the fertilization of twenty female trees. 



In " Journal of the Indian Archipelago," V., p. 78 the cultivation 

 of Nutmegs in Bencoolen, Sumatra, is described as follows : — '■ The 

 mode of culture adopted in the different nutmeg plantations is 

 nearly the same. The beds of the trees are kept free from grass 

 and noxious weeds by the hoe, and the plough is occasionally run 

 along the interjacent spaces for the purpose of eradicating the 

 Lallang (Anclropogon caricosicm) wdiich proves greatly obstructive 

 to the operations of agriculture. The trees are generally manured 

 with cow-dung and burnt earth once a year in the rainy season. 

 The pruning knife is too sparingly used : very few- of the planters 

 lop off the lower verticals of the trees or thin them of the 

 unproductive and straggling branches. 



The site of a plantation is an oljject of primary im]3ortance, 

 doubtless the alluvial grounds are entitled to preference from the 

 acknowledged fertility of their soil, and its appropriate organization 

 and capacity for retaining moisture. Several of the nutmeg trees 

 of the importation of 1798 at Moco Moco are in soil of this descrip- 

 tion ; although never manured they are in the highest state of 

 luxuriance and bear abundantly. . . . Xext to the alluvial 

 deposits, virgin forest lands claim pre-eminence, their surface 



