172 NUTMEG CULTURE IN THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. 



the timber so that its under surface is level with the lowest parts of a row 

 of tubular cutting-tools, or long, sharp-edged punches. The cutting-tools 

 are thus arranged : five pieces of steel are fixed side by side in a horizontal 

 bar. Each piece of steel is perforated with three long holes, lying close 

 together, and having their ends sharpened like the cutting edges of a hollow 

 punch. A line of 15 tubular cutters is thus formed, and motion is given 

 to the horizontal bar, in which they are fixed, by a crank which impels 

 them against the timber ; this is depressed at each stroke sufficiently to 

 allow each cutter to cut out its spill, which passes through and falls out 

 behind. The cost of this machine does not exceed 201. ; and when the 

 number of matches, all nicely rounded, which" it is capable of producing, is 

 contrasted with the number which could be produced by a hand-instrument 

 in the same time, it will serve as a simple and striking illustration of the 

 advantages of the employment of matter in the form of machinery to do 

 the work of man. S. 



New York. 



NUTMEG CULTURE IN THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. 



BY T. BRADDELL, F.R.G.S. 



About the close of the last century, the cultivation of the nutmeg and 

 clove were introduced into the Straits Settlements by the Local Govern- 

 ments. These spices were confined to the narrow limits of the Banda and 

 Arnboyna groups, where the Dutch Government had long enforced strict rules 

 for preserving the monopoly, destroying the germinating principle of the fruit 

 before exportation, to prevent the growth elsewhere, and burning all produce 

 beyond the quantity considered necessary to supply the market, so as to 

 keep up prices. During the British occupation of the Dutch Islands, com- 

 mencing in 1795, advantage was taken of the opportunity to introduce 

 large numbers of nutmeg and clove plantations into British possessions. 

 Bencoolen, Pinang, Bourbon, Mauritius, and some of the West India 

 Island, were pointed out, but Dr Roxburgh, the eminent botanist, at that 

 time curator of the Calcutta Botanical Gardens, reported strongly in favour 

 of Pinang, as being better suited for spice cultivation than any other place 

 within the British territories. 



Pinang was, in consequence, fixed on as the locality for experiment, on a 

 large scale, while other places received plants to a lesser extent. From March, 

 1800, till September, 1801, 24,820 nutmegs, and 15,985 clove-plants and 

 seedlings were introduced into Pinang, and in a report of the Honourable 

 Company's botanist in the next year, it is stated that no less than 71,262 

 nutmegs, and 55,264 clove-plants and seedlings had been introduced. The 

 greater portion, however, of the plants appear to have died off, and although 

 the Company went to considerable expense in the garden, it does not appear 

 that much progress was made ; for in 1805, when the plants were sold off, 



