i88 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



CHAP, 



Habitat. 



Exports 

 from 

 Jamaica. 

 Description 

 of the spice. 



The tree. 



Pimento. Pi7nenta offici?taizs. 



Pimento is the dried, unripe fruit of a trcke which grows wild 

 in Jamaica, Dominica and other parts of the West Indies, as 

 well as in Central and South America. But, strange to say, 

 Jamaica is the only country from whence this spice is 

 exported. In the year 1882 the exports of pimento from 

 Jamaica were over 76,000 cwt. valued at nearly ^113,000, 

 Pimento, or Jamaica pepper as it is sometimes called, is 

 round, of the size of a small pea, of a dark colour, with the 

 remains of the calyx attached, and it possesses an agreeable 

 odour and flavour, supposed to resemble a combination of 

 those of cinnamon, cloves and nutmegs, and hence the name 

 allspice, under which it is commonly known in domestic use. 

 The tree is a very handsome one, reaching to a height of 

 30 feet, and possessing, usually, a single, smooth, clean stem 

 with a light ashen or brown-coloured bark, which peels off 

 in thin flakes as the trunk increases in size. 



Thrives on 

 poor soils. 



Climate. 



How the 

 plantations 

 are estab- 

 lished in 

 Jamaica. 



Soil and Climate. — Pimento is the only one of the spices 

 which grows on a poor soil, indeed one writer goes so far as 

 to say that it thrives on barren land. The soil must be of a 

 friable nature and well drained, such as is found along the 

 rocky or stony slopes of the sea-board of some of the more 

 mountainous of the West Indian islands. The tree does not 

 do well in clay or sandy soils, and it will not grow in marshy 

 situations. The best climate is a hot and dry one, and ex- 

 posure to wind does no particular harm. 



Formation of a Pimento Walk. — The system of propa- 

 gation and planting out, adopted in the case of most other 

 cultivations, is not employed in the formation of a pimento 

 " walk " — as the plantation is usually called in Jamaica. Mr. 

 Morris thus describes the peculiarly easy way in which a 

 pimento plantation is established. " In Jamaica the present 

 system of establishing a pimento walk, is to allow a piece 



