CLOTES. 



399 



skilled persons from Amboyna ; the places they made choice of 

 did not differ materially as to soil and climate from those of 

 the Moluccas. 



M. Teysman, Director of the Botanical Grardens at Batavia, 

 seems to have bestowed much attention on the subject. The 

 exports however from the island have been considerable. In 

 1830, there were 803 piculs shipped ; in 1835, 4,566 ; in 1839, 

 2,33i ; in 184^3, 2,027 piculs of 133 lbs. 



M. Buee, who introduced the culture of the clove in the island 

 of Dominica, about 1789, thus describes the results of his 

 experience, which may be useful to other experimental cultivators. 

 He obtained a few plants from Cayenne, and raised 1,600 trees 

 from seed, which, in a year from the first sowing, were trans- 

 planted. The seeds were sown at aboat six inches apart from each 

 other, in beds; over these beds small frames were erected about three 

 feet from the ground, and plantain leaves were spread on the top, 

 in order to shelter the young plants from the sun. The leaves 

 were allowed gradually to decay, and at the end of nine months the 

 young plants, which by that time were strong, were permitted to 

 receive the benefit of the sun ; but if not protected from it when 

 very young, they wei e found to droop and die. 



When transplanted, the trees were placed ac sixteen feet apart 

 from each other. I'hey grew^ very luxuriantly, and at the end of 

 fifteen months after their removal, attained the height of from three 

 to four feet. The ground wherein thej^ were planted had been a coffee 

 plantation during forty years. The coffee trees had decayed, and an 

 attempt had been made to replace them ; but they refused to grow ; 

 whereas the clove plants flourished as if on congenial soil, and a 

 crop was gathered on some of them when they were not more 

 than six years old, which period is two or three years earlier than 

 the usual time for gathering. 



The cloves sent from St. Yiucent to England in 1800, were 

 obtained from trees eight feet high, having astern only two inches 

 in diameter. Trial was made in tliat island of the relative growth 

 of the plant on difierent soils ; it grew" sickly on lai id which was 

 not manured, bnt on land which had received this preparation it 

 flourished. 



In Singapore, about ten years ago, there were then about 15,000 

 clove trees planted out, a few of which only had come in bearing. 

 If these plantations had proved equally productive with those of the 

 sister settlement of Pinang, it would have been able to export 

 60,000 lbs. of cloves, its own produce ; but this expectation, it will 

 be seen, has not been realised. In the season of 1841-42, there 

 was 1000 piculs of cloves shipped from Pinang, but none were ex- 

 ported in the two previous years. 



The quantity of laod under cultivation with cloves there, in 

 1843, was 463 orlongs in Prince of Wales Island, and 517 in 

 Province Wellesley. The number of trees planted out in the 

 former island was 72,779 ; in the latter province 7,639. There 

 were in the island 25,161 plants in nursery. 



