Ch. XVI.] BLIGHT OF THE NUTMEGS. 263 



luxuriance, may probably be traced the catastrophe which 

 eTentually blotted out nutmeg-cultivation from the settle- 

 ment. Around each tree, and just level with the outer 

 branches, a trench was dug about one foot deep and one 

 foot wide, and this was filled with a manure of co;w-dung. 

 The result of this universal treatment was that the trees for 

 a time grew luxuriantly, and yielded large returns. About 

 six hundred nuts, or 8 lbs. weight, were yielded by a good 

 tree during the year; and as the crop was yielded all the 

 year round, independently of season, some plantations pro- 

 duced a picul (133 lbs.) per diem qu an average — the value 

 of the picul being 70 or 80 doUars — or from 25,000 to 

 30,000 doUars per annum. 



For upwards of twenty years the planting was carried on 

 vigorously. Plantations changed hands at very extravagant 

 prices ; and much money was made during that period. In 

 the year 1860, however, a sudden destruction came upon the 

 trees from an unknown quarter ; and, to the dismay of the 

 planters, the trees, which up to that time had yielded mag- 

 nificently, were attacked with a blight, whose destructive 

 effects could not be arrested, whUe the source of it defied 

 all inquiry. In the night a tree would be attacked, and the 

 morning light would show its topmost branches withered ; 

 the leaves fell off; the disease slowly spread downwards, 

 chiefly on one side of the tree ; and, in spite of every at- 

 tempt to check it (the lower portion often being for a long 

 time green and bushy), the tree became an unsightly mass 

 of bare and whitened twigs. Most trees were entirely 

 stripped in time, and became mere skeletons. Large out- 

 lay was expended in the endeavours to arrest the destruction, 

 but it was all thrown away. No situation was exempt from 

 its ravages — Chills and valleys alike suffered, nor could any 



