THE CLOVE. 



363 



laurel. Grown from seed, it bears in the fifth 

 year, and the fruit, the unexpanded flower-bud, 

 is usually ripe in October. In rainy years the 

 harvest beginning with early September is con- 

 tinued uninterruptedly : when the season, how- 

 ever, is dry the picking ceases in November and 

 December, to be resumed in January. Hence the 

 tales of two yields per annum. The crop, which 

 lasts even till March, and which appears to be 

 very uncertain, is hand-picked by Wasawahili 

 and slaves — gathered, in fact, like coffee, except 

 that, requiring ladders and more labour, it is a 

 very slow process. Under favourable circum- 

 stances the tree should produce a maximum of 

 6 lbs ; here, however, the ground is neither 

 cleared nor manured, and the consequence is, 

 that 30 trees rarely yield more than 35 lbs per 

 annum. The fruit is sun-dried upon matting for 

 three days : the workmen forget to turn it, and 

 allow it to be broken and injured; moreover, they 

 will not smoke it, and thus prevent over-shrink- 

 ing and wrinkling. Some years ago Mr Wilson, 

 an English engineer who died at Zanzibar, pro- 

 duced, by attending to the tree, and by properly 

 desiccating his cloves upon iron hurdles, a supe- 

 rior article, with red shanks and large full heads. 

 M. Sausse, a Creole from Bourbon or Mauritius, 



