i8o 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURE chap. 



if the climate be 



the cultivation, and in such a situation 

 suitable, the trees will bear large crops. 



A hot and 

 moist 

 climate 

 necessary. 



Climate. — A hot, moist climate is requisite, and the trees 

 must be sheltered from high winds, which would blow off 

 the flowers, and shake the trees too much — for the roots take 

 a slender hold of the ground. The rainfall should be at 

 least si.xty or seventy inches per annum ; and, as the nutmeg 

 is essentially a lowland plant, its cultivation is not likely to 

 prove successful at a higher elevation than 1,500 feet above 

 the sea. 



Seed. 



Nurseries. 



Transplant- 

 ing. 



Fresh seed 

 necessary. 



Propagation. — Plants are raised from fresh seed, which 

 may be sown in nursery beds, in bamboos, or " at stake " in 

 the fields. The nursery beds having been made in a place 

 sheltered from the sun and from winds, large, ripe, round 

 nuts, quite fresh, are selected and planted a foot apart at the 

 distance of about an inch below the surface of the soil. The 

 nurseries must be watered every day in dry weather, and then 

 the seedlings will appear in from thirty to sixty days. When 

 the plants are about two or three feet high, they may be 

 transplanted to their permanent situations during wet weather- 

 If the seed be planted in bamboos, great care must be taken 

 that the earth does not become dry ; for if this occur, ger- 

 mination will not take place. And, furthermore, the nuts 

 will not germinate if they become so dry as to rattle in the 

 shell when they are shaken. A Grenada planter, who has 

 much experience in nutmeg cultivation, recommends the seed 

 should be planted in the place where the tree is to grow, as 

 the plants then come on much faster and fruit earlier. A 

 drawback to this system is that the land is occupied with 

 plants, many of them possibly staminate, and therefore use- 

 less and the expenses of cultivation are greatly increased. 



Distances. CULTIVATION. — The distauGcs at which the plants are set 

 out should be from twenty-five to thirty feet, the wider space 



