NUTMEGS AND MACE. 11 



importance that the ground is well opened and its cohesion broken, 

 in order to admit of the free expansion of the roots of the tender 

 plants, and that it be intimately mixed with burnt earth and cow- 

 manure, in the proportion of two-thirds of the former to one-third 

 of the latter. The plants are to be set in rows, as well for the 

 sake of regularity, as for the more convenient traversing of the 

 plough, which is now to be employed in clearing the intermediate 

 spaces of Lallang and other noxious grasses, carefully avoiding to 

 trespass on the beds of the trees. They must be w^atered every 

 other day in sultry weather, manured annually during the rains 

 with four garden baskets full of the aliove-mentioned compost to 

 each tree, and protected from the sun until thev attain the ag^e of 

 five years. They will now be sufficiently hardy to bear the sun, 

 and from that age until their fifteenth year the compost should 

 consist of equal parts of cow-dung and burnt earth, and from eight 

 to twelve baskets full will be required for each bearing tree, a 

 lesser proportion being distributed to the males. From the powder 

 of habit, the trees will, after the fifteenth year, require a more 

 stimulating nutriment ; t\w dung ought not, therefore, to be more 

 than two or three months old, and the mixture should consist of 

 tw^o parts of it to one of burnt earth, of which the suitable pro- 

 portion will be from twelve to sixteen baskets to each tree 

 biennially. In all cases the prepared compost must be spread out 

 in the sun for three or four days previous to its application, in 

 order to destroy grubs and worms that may have lodged in it, and 

 which might injure the roots of the plants. In all plantations, 

 whether situated in forest land, or in the plains, the necessity of 

 manuring at stated intervals has been found indispensable, and is 

 indeed identified with their prosperity. The proper mode of 

 applying it is in a circular furrow in immediate contact with the 

 extremities of the fibrous roots, which may be called the 

 absorbants of the plant. Where there is a scarcity of dung, 

 recourse may be had to the dregs remaining after the preparation 

 of the oil from the fruit of the Archis hypogcea, wdiich in mixture 

 with burnt earth is a very stimulating manure, or composts may 

 be formed from the decomposition of leaves or vegetable matter of 

 any description. A very fertilizing and highly animalized liquid 

 nutriment for plants is obtained by macerating human ordure in 

 water in proper pits for four or five months, and applying the fluid 

 to the radical absorbents of the plants. Seaweed and many other 



