362 



THE CLOVE. 



beggar. After a few years extensive plantations, 

 some containing 15,000 to 20,000 feet, were laid 

 out in the richest parts of the Island. The trees, 

 however, set at intervals of 14 to 40, and now 20 

 feet, occupied large tracts of ground, and they 

 were so rarely trimmed, that degeneracy soon 

 ensued. Similarly the Brazilian planter, though 

 well aware of his loss, cannot prune his coffee 

 shrub : his hands are all negroes, and if allowed 

 to use cutting instruments, they would hack 

 even the stem. Now the Zanzibar article cannot 

 compete with the produce of Bourbon ; and the 

 Dutch having thrown into the market the valu- 

 able and long-withheld produce of the Moluccas, 

 it threatens to become a drug. The people would 

 do well to follow the example of Mauritius, 

 whence the clove has long departed in favour of 

 sugar. Eor the latter Zanzibar is admirably 

 adapted : when factories shall everywhere be 

 established, the Island will have then found her 

 proper profession, and will soon attain the height 

 of her prosperity. 



The clove (Karanful), planted in picturesque 

 bands, streaking the red argillaceous hills, is 

 allowed to run to wood, and to die, withered at 

 the top, in the shape of a bushy thick-foliaged 

 tree 35 feet tall, and somewhat resembling a 



