322 Cultivation of Nutmegs and Cloves in Bencoolen. 



These five propositions I offer as so v^^wy facts established by 

 observation- Most of them appear in the original paper of Cassiiii 

 on the zodiacal light; others may be seen in the tabular collec- 

 tion by Honzeau of all the known observations made at different 

 periods ; a few, not noted by others, have been added by myself. 

 For the inferences here made respecting the connexion of this 

 body with the periodical meteors, I alone am responsible. 



Art. XXXII. — Cultivation of Nutmegs and Cloves in Ben- 



coolen f^ by Dr. Lumsdaine. 



The mode of culture adopted in the different nutmeg planta- 

 tions is nearly the same. The beds of the trees are kept free from 

 grass and noxious weeds by the hoe, and the plough is occasionally 

 run along the interjacent spaces for the purpose of eradicating the 

 Lallang (Andropogon caricosum) which proves greatly obstruc- 

 tive to the operations of agriculture. The trees are generally 

 manured with cow dung and burnt earth once a year in the rainy 

 season^ but the preparation of suitable composts and their mode 

 of application are but imperfectly miderstood- The pruning 

 knife is too sparingly used ; very "tew of the planters lop off the 

 lower verticels of the nutmeg trees or thin them of the unproduc- 

 tive and straggling branches. 



The site of a plantation is an object of primary importance, and 

 doubtless the alluvial grounds are entitled to preference from the 

 acknowledged fertility of their soil, and its appropriate organiza- 



tion and capability of retaining moisture, independent of the ad- 



vantage of water carriage. Several of the nutmeg trees of the 



J-,^ ^^ „ ...V.» V>^W*V*J^ 



importation of 1798 at Moco Moco, are placed in soil of this de- 

 scription; although never manured they are in the highest state 

 of luxuriance and bear abundantly; and I have been informed by 

 a gentleman recently arrived from that station, that the stem of 

 one of them measures 3S inches in circumference. Some of the 

 trees in my own experimental garden, corroborate the truth of 

 this assertion; one of these blossomed at the early age of two 

 years ten months and a half, a degree of precocity ascribable 

 solely to its proximity to the lake which forms the southern 

 boundary. This w^as the first tree that blossomed of the importa- 

 tion of 1803, which consisted of upwards of 22,000 nutmeg 

 plants. Next to the alluvial deposits, virgin forest lands claiiTi 

 pre-eminence, their surface being clothed with a dark colored 

 carbonized mould, formed by the slow decay of falling leai^es and 



From a Paper in the Proceedings of the Agricultural Society established in Su- 

 matra in 1S20 ; cited from the Souin. of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern A?m, 

 V, p. 78, Jan.. 1851. 



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