326 Cultivation of Nutmegs and Cloves in Bencoolen. 



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reat harvest may generally be looked for in the months of Sep- 



tember, October, November and December, and a small one in 

 April J May and June, Like other fruit trees on this portion of 

 Sumatra, I hav^e remarked that it yields most abundantly every 

 other year. The fruit having ripened, the outer integument bursts 

 spoutaneouslyj and is gathered by means of a hook attached to a 

 long stick, and the mace being cautiously stripped off and flattened 

 by the hands in single layers, is placed on mats for three or four 

 days in the sun to dry. Some planters cut off the heels and dry 

 the mace in double blades, from an opinion that the insect is apt 

 to breed in or about the heels, and that the double blade gives a 

 better and more substantial appearance to the mace. The former 

 idea is entirely groundless, for if the article be properly cured, 

 kept in tight packages in a dry situation, and exposed to the sun 

 for five or six hours once a fortnight^ there need be no apprehen- 

 sion of the insect; and if it is not, it will assuredly be attacked 

 by it whether the heels be cut off or not ; again, the insect is 

 much more likely to nestle within the fold of the double blade, 

 and the fancied superiority of appearance has so little weight 

 with the purchaser, as not to counterbalance the risk of probable 

 deterioration and eventual loss. In damp and rainy weather the 

 mace should be dried by the heat of a charcoal fire, carefully con- 

 ducted so as not to smoke it or blacken its surface. 



The nuts liberated from their macy envelope are transported to 

 the drying house, and deposited on the elevated stage of split nee- 

 bongs, placed at a sufficient distance from each other to admit of 

 the heat from a smouldering fire beneath without suffering even 

 the smallest nuts to pass through. The heat should not exceed 

 140^ of Fahrenheit, for a sudden inordinate degree of heat dries 

 np the kernels of the nuts too rapidly, and its continued applica- 

 tion produces fissures in them, or a fermentation is excited in them 

 which increases their volume so greatly as to fill np the whole *t 



cavity of the shell, and to prevent them from rattling when put 

 to this criterion of due preparation. The fire is lighted in the 

 night. The smoking house is a brick building of a suitable size, 

 with a terraced roof, and the stage is placed at an elevation of ten 

 feet from the ground, having three divisions in it fi^r the produce 

 of different months. The nuts must be turned every second or 

 third day that they may all partake equally of the heat, and such 

 as hav^e undergone the smoking process for the period of two 

 complete months and rattle freely in the shell, are to be cracked 

 with wooden mallets, tlie worm-eaten and shriveled ones thrown 

 out, and the good ones rubbed over simply with recently prepared 

 well sifted dry lime. They are now to be regarbled, and finally 

 packed for transportation in tight casks, the insides of which have 

 been smoked, cleaned, and covered with a coating of fresh water 

 and lime. If packed in chests, the seams must be dammered to 



