SPICES AjSTD FRAGP..V2^T WOODS. 



The trees in bearing were — In Prince of "Wales Island, 28,739 ; 

 not bearing, 44,040 ; produce in 1843, 87 piculs, 50 catties ; gross 

 value, 3,399 dollars ; estimated produce of cloves for 1844, 469 

 piculs. In Province Wellesley — Trees in bearing, 1,073 ; not 

 bearing, 6,5Q6 ; produce in 1843, 1 picul, 13 catties ; gross value 

 45 dollars. 



The export of cloves from Pinang was, in 1849, 24,000 lbs. ; in 

 1850, 52,400; in 1851, 27,866; in 1852, 45,087. 



Prom tabular statements drawn up in 1844, by Mr. P. S. 

 Brown, Chairman of the Pinang Chamber of Commerce, it appears 

 that there were, in 1843, in that island and Province "Wellesley 

 adjoining, 96 clove plantations, containing 80,418 clove trees ; 

 besides many young trees in nurseries ready to be planted out. 

 The produce of cloves there, in 1842, was 11,813 lbs., and this 

 was a very short crop, it having that year proved a complete 

 failure ; the average crop for some years previous had been 46,666 

 lbs. Pinang only began to export this spice in 1832. Of the clove 

 trees in Pinang there were then only 29,812 in bearing, leaving 

 75,767 in that settlement alone to come to maturity ; estimated 

 to yield about 300,000 lbs. 



No success has attended repeated trials of cloves in Singapore. 

 Until the trees reach the age of bearing, they grow and look 

 extremely well ; but any expectation of a crop that may have been 

 raised by their hitherto fine condition, ends in disappointment, for 

 just then the trees assume the appearance of sudden blight, as if 

 lightning-stricken, and then die. 125 clove plants and 350 

 seedlings were sent to Singapore from Bencoolen, by Sir T. Eaffles, 

 in the close of 1819 ; but although every care was paid them — 

 while the nutmegs which accompanied them throve amazingly well 

 — little or no progress has been made with clove culture. Two or 

 three hundred- weight were shipped in 1845, but since then hardly 

 any mention is made of the spice. 



In a petition presented by the spice planters of Pinang and 

 Province AVellesley, to the authorities at home, in 1844, praying 

 that the duty on British Colonial nutmegs, mace, and cloves 

 might be reduced to Is. 9d., Is. 3d., and 3d. respectively, on 

 importation into England, in order to compete with foreign pro- 

 duce, it was stated that a fev^^ years hence Prince of Wales Island 

 might be expected to produce 600,000 lbs. of nutmegs, 200,000 lbs. 

 of mace, and 300,000 lbs. of cloves ; whilst Singapore, if equally 

 successful in the culture of the same, would yield yearly 137,000 

 lbs. of nutmegs, 45,000 lbs. of mace, and 60,000 lbs. of cloves. In 

 short, the planters needed only encouragement to produce in the 

 course of a few years a full supply of those valuable spices for the 

 whole COD sumption of Great Britian. 



Dr. Euschenberger, who visited Zanzibar in 1835, thus speaks 

 of the clove plantations there : — " As far as the eye could reach 

 over a beautifully undulated land, nothing was to be seen but 

 clove trees of diiierent ages, varying in height from five to 

 twenty feet. The form of the tree is conical, the branches grow 



