54 ODOROGIIAPHIA. 



they are frequently winnowed, and laid in cloths to preserve them 

 from rain and dews, still being exposed to the sun every day and 

 removed under cover every evening till sufficiently dry, w^hich 

 usually happens in twelve days and is known by their having 

 acquired a reddish-brown colour, also by the rattling of the seeds. 

 Some planters kiln-dry the berries, especially w^hen the crop is 

 abundant ; security against rain being essential. 



For gathering the berries from such parts of the tree as 

 cannot be reached by climbing, recourse is had to ladders. The 

 small twigs bearing the berries arranged in bunches, are broken 

 off and brought down. 



If the fruit is allowed to ripen on the tree, it falls to the ground, 

 and in a ripe state is of no commercial value, for the reason above 

 described. A problem which faces the pimento producer is there- 

 fore the rapid picking of the berries when they are just fully 

 grown ; this has recently been referred to by a Colonist in the 

 following terms* : — " It is often difficult to secure enough help 

 from among the indolent natives to pick the crop, and one large 

 producer told me that he had lost fully 3,000 bags of his pimento, 

 which had ripened and fallen to the ground, simply because he 

 could get no one to pick it." 



The pimento tree begins to fructify in three years after it is 

 planted, and arrives at maturity at seven years, when it abundantly 

 repays the patience of the planter. It is particularly fond of a 

 white marly or chalky soil having a shallow surface of mould, 

 and therefore thrives on rocky lands which are fit for little else. 



Strictly speaking, the pimento tree is not really cultivated at all 

 in Jamaica. The trees are found in greater or less numbers all 

 over the island ; but in some sections of the country they are the 

 predominating trees, indigenous and growing wild. The nearest 

 approach to cultivation is to clear away the underwood and keep 

 the groves free from brushwood and creepers ; a difficult task 

 where everything grows spontaneously in the wildest luxuriance. 

 Sometimes the trees wdll be found singly, sometimes in groups of 

 six, twelve or twenty. In other places a few hundred will be 

 found ; while in ten principal pimento districts in parishes of 

 Manchester, above Kingston, and St. Ann's, there are great forests 

 of pimento trees. These last-named mountainous districts are 



* Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter, April, 1892. 



