i86 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



CHAP. 



Layering. 



Nurseries. 



Fresh seed 

 necessary. 



Transplant- 



Shelter 

 sheds. 



Shade 

 required. 



be planted in sheltered situations, for high overhanging 

 shade is inimical to its growth. 



Propagation. — Plants may be raised from seed, or by 

 layering. If the young branches are laid down and kept 

 moist, they will take root in about six months. The nursery 

 beds, made in a sheltered situation with rich mould, should 

 be sown with the seeds at distances of about a foot 

 from each other. Fresh seed must be planted, as it soon 

 loses its vitality ; and, as germination takes place within a 

 few weeks, the seed must be sown not more than two inches 

 below the surface. The seedlings require frequent waterings 

 in dry weather, and they should not be transplanted until 

 they are three or four feet high. The plan so successfully 

 adopted at the end of the last century by M. Buee, on 

 his plantation in Dominica, is so admirable that it may 

 with advantage be transcribed here from the account in 

 Porter's "Tropical Agriculturist," published in 1833. "The 

 *' seeds were sown at about six inches ^ apart from each other 

 *' in beds. Over these beds small frames were erected about 

 "three feet from the ground, and plantain-leaves were spread 

 " on the top in order to shelter the young plants from the 

 " sun. The leaves were allowed gradually to decay and, at 

 " the end of nine months, the young plants, which by that 

 " time were strong, were allowed to receive the benefit of the 

 " sun ; but if not protected from it when very young, they 

 " were found to droop and die." 



Cultivation.— The land must be lined at twenty feet 

 distances, and holes dug as described in the case of the nut- 

 meg. The seedlings are transplanted at the beginning of the 

 rainy season, and shade is necessary for the first two or three 

 years by which time the plants are strong enough to bear the 

 sun. At the sixth year the young trees will commence to bear, 

 and the crops will go on increasing year by year until the 

 full height of thirty feet or more is reached. In the Moluccas 



1 This is too close : a better distance is twelve inches. 



