THE PAL5IS OF ASIA. 119 



ever, produce fruit iip to the seventieth, or even 

 the hundredth year, but the produce decHnes 

 both in quality and quantity. It is stated that 

 every fertile tree produces on an average eight 

 hundred and fifty nuts annually, and an ordinary 

 tree as many as six hundred, but this is by no 

 means a general rule, for some trees produce 

 only about two hundred nuts. The average pro- 

 duce, says CraAvford, may be stated at not less 

 than fourteen pounds' weight, and as these 

 palms are usually planted at a distance of seven 

 and a half feet, it follows that the produce of 

 an acre is 10,841 pounds. This explains the 

 extraordinary cheapness at which the grower is 

 enabled to sell the nut, which is often as lovr 

 as half a dollar per picul of 133^ pounds. It 

 was stated some years ago, that the number of 

 betel palms in Prince of Wales's Island alone 

 amounted to 342,1 10 ; and many ships freighted 

 solely with the nuts sail annually from the ports 

 of Sumatra, Malacca, Siam, and Cochin-China. 

 The crop of the areca is produced during 

 three months, and the nuts when gathered are 

 each cut into seven or eight pieces and piled in 

 a heap. They arc then boiled in water which 

 has been previously mixed with a decoction of 

 areca nut, betel-leaf, Terra japonica, and Mimosa 

 indica. They are then dried, and by this pro- 



