1 84 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



CHAP. 



Market 

 grades. 



size and the worm-pricked ones are thrown aside. Large 

 fine, round nuts are worth double the price of small ones, and 

 so in planting the seed the largest and roundest nuts must 

 be selected. 



There are usually three grades in the market, according to 

 the number of nuts that go to the pound. These grades are 

 as follows : — 



Large . . 60 to 80 nuts to the lb. 

 Medium . . 85 to 95 „ „ „ „ 

 Small . . 100 to 125 „ ,, „ „ 



Drying the 

 mace. 



Packing. 



Returns. 



Mace. — The scarlet aril of the nutmeg is stripped off 

 as soon as the fruit is gathered, flattened by the hand, and 

 placed on mats, or in trays, to dry in the sun for three or 

 four days. It then turns to a yellowish-brown colour and 

 becomes the mace of commerce. Mace is usually shipped in 

 bales or in bags, and it should be packed tightly to prevent 

 it becoming broken. The yield of mace is about a fifth in 

 weight of that of the nutmegs, so that if a tree give a crop 

 of 1,800 fruits, the net return would be about 20 lbs. of nut- 

 megs and 5 lbs. of mace. 



Habitat. 



The Dutch 

 monopoly. 



Introduc- 

 tion of the 

 clove into 

 Dominica. 



The Clove. Caryophyllus aromaticus. 



The clove, like the nutmeg tree, is a native of the Moluccas, 

 or spice islands. The Dutch, as we have seen, endeavoured 

 to monopolise the trade in these spices ; and, to that end, 

 they restricted the cultivation of the clove to the small island 

 of Amboyna, and made every effort to extirpate the plant 

 elsewhere. But the French succeeded in carrying living 

 plants to Cayenne, and from thence it was brought in the 

 year 1789 to Dominica by a M. Buee, who successfully cul- 

 tivated the clove and other spices only to be ruined in the 

 end, by the operation of the duties imposed on West Indian 

 spices in England, through the jealousy of influential persons 



