PIMENTO OR ALLSPICE 199 



CULTIVATION 



The tree is raised from seed. The ripe seed is 

 washed to free it of the pulp of the fruit, which, if not 

 removed, becomes hard and dry, and prevents the 

 germination. However, most of the Jamaica planta- 

 tions have been formed by clearing the bush arid 

 allowing the seedlings, which spring from seed carried 

 about and dispersed by birds, to grow. The best 

 results have been obtained when the trees are planted 

 20 ft. apart. 



The soil may be poor, so long as it is fairly light 

 and well drained. Mr. W. Bancroft Espeut, in a lecture 

 on the timbers of Jamaica, describes the method of 

 cultivation thus : 



It is only necessary to dig the soil in order to loosen it and 

 remove old stumps and roots, to lay, say, 1 in. of leafy mould 

 and sand in equal parts on the surface, water it well if the 

 weather is dry, and scatter, not bury, the quite ripe fresh- 

 gathered pimento berries, and cover the land with straw or 

 some other shade-yielding material, and keep it moist. In a 

 very short time, three or four weeks, thousands of young seed- 

 lings will make their appearance. These should be thinned out, 

 the surplus seedlings being transplanted to other land suitably 

 prepared. Care must be taken not to remove the shade stuff 

 too suddenly, but gradually, so as to harden off the young 

 plants. 



The trees can be grown to an elevation of about 

 3,000 ft. in the West Indies, and commence to flower 

 when they are from seven to ten years old. The 

 crops of berries increase each year till the tree reaches 

 maturity, that is to say, when it is about eighteen or 

 twenty years old. It will continue to bear, if properly 

 treated, for a great number of years, longer, indeed, than 

 the average life of a man. 



Mr. Adam Eoxburgh, in an account given in 

 Cundall's Jamaica in 1905, states that growers of all- 

 spice distinguish between fruitful or bearing trees and 

 unfruitful or so-called " male" trees. The two trees are 



