186 SPICES 



CHAP. 



of what a clove plantation may be expected to yield. The un- 

 picked surplus is, therefore, left out of account. Treated thus 

 it will help to neutralise the effect of basing our calculation 

 upon an abnormally large crop. 



Our cloves were not subjected to the usual 25 per cent 

 export drying. 



This reduces the income per tree to 9J annas ; or K.54 

 (3 : 12s.) per acre with 90 trees to the acre. 



Cost of working a Clove Plantation. Beyond purchasing 

 drying mats and paying the harvesting expenses, the Arab 

 spends little or nothing upon his clove trees. He employs his 

 available labour, for the most part, in growing manioc, sweet 

 potatoes, and bananas for food and for sale. Thus the resident 

 Arab in charge of Marseilles, when we took it over in May, was 

 expected to make 34 rupees a month by the sale of fruit and 

 annuals, and was in consequence compelled to keep his men 

 cultivating the open spaces, and to leave the trees alone. This 

 is a fair sample of Arab practice ; it is a policy of looking after 

 the pence and neglecting the pounds. The weeds on this 

 shamba were half-way up the trees, in some cases climbing 

 completely over them ; many were dying, and 1,000 have been 

 killed outright. It cost us K.5 per acre to clear the land, 

 reckoning 90 trees to the acre. We let out contracts, giving 

 4 pice for each space between 4 trees. When the land has 

 been once or twice thoroughly weeded over, the cost of cultiva- 

 tion will be much reduced. In addition to cleaning the land 

 we hope this year to dig round each tree, at a contract price 

 of probably 1 or 2 pice per tree. At Dunga we are now doing 

 this work with two mules and a plough. Drying mats cost 

 30 rupees per 100, and baskets 3 rupees per score ; 800 of the 

 former and 100 of the latter were purchased for use at 

 Machui, but at least half of these will be available for use 

 again next year. There are no other outgoings to note beyond 

 the overseer's wages, the purchase of a few dozen hoes, and 

 items such as thatching and repair of houses and sheds, always 

 incidental to the management of an estate. It seems to me, 

 indeed, that clove planting as an industry has been somewhat 

 unworthily discredited. Over-production and the labour crisis 

 have brought about the stagnation of all enterprise, but I 

 believe that clove planting in Zanzibar would respond to 

 European management and proper cultivation. The production 

 of cloves must decrease as years go on, as no young plantations 

 are being made to supply the waste among the old trees. Such 

 a year as this must exact a heavy toll; the enormous yield, 

 coming as it has done in a year of drought, will exhaust the 



