178 SPICES 



CHAP. 



injury. The cloves should be spread out on mats, if 

 possible on a concrete floor, and not laid on the ground. 

 He also points out that in gathering the buds should be 

 picked in the best condition, neither too young nor too 

 old. 



The Zanzibar cloves are small and often shrivelled, 

 and of a poor colour, much inferior to Penang and 

 Amboyna cloves. This may be due to the slow method 

 of drying or to carelessness of the native workman. 



It is probable that careful drying by heat would 

 give finer results than can be obtained under the best 

 circumstances by sun-heat, and in the tropics one can 

 never depend on having good drying days when the 

 cloves are ripe for gathering. In any case it would be 

 as well to have a good drying-room available for use in 

 wet weather, in which the temperature could be raised, 

 or a series of good drying ovens. 



The average weight of cloves produced by each tree 

 in a season in Amboyna is given as 5 Ibs., in Sumatra 

 6 or 7 Ibs., in Penang 5 Ibs., while in the Moluccas k\ 

 Ibs. is given as the usual crop. 



Allowing 100 trees to the acre, and that two-thirds 

 of these are in full bearing condition, an acre will 

 produce 375 Ibs. of dry cloves. 



Consul Pratt of Zanzibar, in a Consular Eeport, 

 estimates the produce of a tree much higher. He says 

 a ten-year-old plantation should produce an average of 

 20 Ibs. of cloves to a tree, and that trees of twenty 

 years should give upwards of 100 Ibs. each. This seems 

 certainly to be exaggerated. 



PACKING 



Cloves are usually exported in gunny bags, but in 

 Zanzibar double mat bags are used in preference. They 

 are very liable to injury from sea- water, so that it is 

 essential that the bags be sound and stored in a safe 

 place on board. The best cloves are large and plump, 

 but little wrinkled, and of a light purplish brown with 



