VIII THE NUTMEG 183 



but he is the only person, as far as the author is aware, who 

 has succeeded in doing so. A good plan is to plant two 

 trees in each hole — at a distance of two feet from each other, 

 and when the flowers appear, it will rarely happen that both 

 trees will turn out to be males. The male can then be cut 

 out, and the female left. 



Crops. — When grown under favourable conditions the nut- Trees bear 

 meg tree will commence to bear at the seventh year or earlier, seventh 

 and the produce will go on increasing up to the fifteenth ^'^^^' 

 year, when a full crop may be expected. In the East, there 

 are usually three crops a year, and the ripe nut takes a little 

 over six months to grow from the flower. The fruit is picked Gathering 

 up every morning after it has fallen to the ground, or, if the ^^'^ ""^^' 

 trees are not too high it is gathered by means of a hook 

 attached to a long stick ; the mace is then stripped off and 

 the nuts are dried in sheds, in wickerwork trays, raised about 

 ten feet above the earthen floor on which smouldering fires 

 are kept up all night and put out during the day time. The 

 heat should not be more than 140'' Fahrenheit. The nuts Drying the 

 are turned in the trays occasionally ; and, when they are ""'^''' 

 thoroughly dry, the shells are broken with wooden mallets, 

 and the nuts are rubbed over with sifted dry lime to prevent Liming the 

 worms attacking them, and then packed in tight casks for ""'^■ 

 export. It is well to smoke the inside of the packages Packing. 

 and then to white-wash them. If boxes are used for shipping 

 the nutmegs, the seams must be stopped up, for every pre- 

 caution is to be taken to prevent the nuts from becoming 

 worm-eaten. In the West Indies, the nutmegs are usually 

 dried in the sun, but they then become more shrivelled and 

 lose some of their value. 



With proper cultivation, a return of from 1,500 to 2,000 Returns 

 nuts should be obtained from each tree in full bearing, and, 

 in some cases, as many as 20,000 have been gathered from 

 single trees. When the produce reaches the home markets Garbling. 

 it is garbled^ that is the nuts are sorted according to their 



