Febri/ary i, 1882.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
739 
to the plantation and systematically arranged, whereas 
in the usual mode of proceeding it is not ascertainable 
before the 7th year in general. 
13. Upon an average the nutmeg tree fruits at 
the age of 7 years, and increases in produce till the 
15th year, when ii is at its greatest productiveness. 
It is said to continue prolific for 70 or 80 years in 
the Moluccas, but our experience carries us no fur- 
ther than 22 years and a half, all the trees of which 
age that have been properly managed, are still in 
the highest degree of vigour and fecundity ; and for 
this reason no term for planting a succession of trees 
can as yet be fixed upon. Seven months in general 
elapse between the appearance of the blossom and 
ripening of the fruit, and the produce of one bearing 
tree with another under good cultivation may in the 
fifteen! h year of the plantation be calculated at rive 
pounds of nutmegs, and a pound and a quartet' of 
mace. I have observed however thai some trees 
produce every year a great quantity of fruit, whilst 
others constantly give very little. It bears all the 
your round, but more plentifully in some months than 
in others. The great harvest may generally lie looked 
for in the months of September, October, November and 
December, and a small one in April, May and June. 
Like other fruit trees on this portion of Sumatra, 
I have remarked that it yields most abundantly 
every other year. The fruit having ripened, the 
outer integument bursts spontaneously, and is gathered 
by meaus of a hook attached to a long stick, and 
the mace being cautiously stripped off, and flattened 
by the hands in single layers, is placed on mats for 
.'{ or -1 days m the sun to dry. Some planters cut 
off the heels and dry the mace in double blades, 
from an opinion that the ineect is apt to breed in or 
about the heels, and that the double blade gives a 
belter and more substantial appearance to the mace. 
The former idea is entirely groundless, for if the 
article be properly cured, kept in tight packages, in 
a dry situation and exposed to the sun for 5 or 6 
hours once a fortnight, there need be no apprehen- 
sion of the insect ; and if it is not, it will assuredly 
be attacked by it whether the heels be cut off or 
not ; again, the insect is much more likely to nestle 
within the fold of the double blade, and the fancied 
superiority of appearance has so little weight with 
the purchaser as not to counterbalance the risk of 
probable deterioration and eventual loss. In damp 
and rainy weather the mace should be dried by the 
heat of a charcoal lire carefully conducted, so a* not 
to smoke it or blacken its surface. 
14. The nuts liberated from their macy envelope 
are transported to the drying house, and deposited on 
an elevated stage of split neebongs placed at a sufficient 
distance from each other to admit of the heat from 
a imouldering lire beneath, without suffering even 
tho smallest nuts to pa-s through. The heat should 
not exceed 140 of Fahrenheit, for a sudden inordin- 
ate degree of heat dries up the kernels of tho nuts 
too rapidly, aud its continued application products 
Assures in them ; or a fermentation is excited in 
them, which increases their volume so greatly as to 
fill up the whole cavity of the shell, and to prevent 
them from rattling when put to this criterion of 
due preparation. Tho fire is lighted in tile evening 
and kepi up tor the wholn of tin- night. The sinok- 
ing house ma brick building ol a suitable size wi b 
a terraced roof, anil the stage is placed at au ele- 
vation of ton foot from tho ground, having three 
En lion 8 in it for the produce of deferent months. 
Th» nuts must be turned every second or third day. 
that they may all partake equally of tho heat, and 
such ns have undergone the smoking process for tho 
period of two complete months aud rattle trsoh in 
iho shell, aro to bo cracked with wooden DUUMSSj 
the worm-eaten and shrivelled ones thrown ou f , and 
the good ones rubbed over simply with recently 
prepared well-sifted dry lime. They are now to be 
re^arbled, and finally packed for transportation in 
tight casks, the insides of which have been smoke 1, 
cleaned, and covered with a coating of freeh water 
and lime, ff packed in chests, the seams must be 
damnicred to prevent, the admission of air or water. 
There is no necessity for sorting them, as previously 
to their sale, they are classed into sizes in the Com- 
pany's Warehouses in London. 
15. Tho mode generally practised in preparing nut- 
megs for the market, is to dip them in a mixture 
of salt water and lime, aud to spread them out on 
mats for 4 or 5 days in the shade to dry. I am 
however convinced from much experience that this is a 
pernicious practice, not only from the quantity of 
moisture imbibed in this process encouiaging the 
breeding of insects and rendering the nuts liable to 
early decay, but from the heating quality of the 
mixture producing fissures and occasioning a great 
loss in the outturn ; whereas by liming them simply 
in the dry way as I have recommended, the loss ought 
not to exceed 8 per cent. In May 1S1G, I made 
some experiments on this subject. I cracked a quant- 
ity of nutmegs that had been smoke dried for two 
months, and distributed them into four equal por- 
tions, f prepared the nuts of one parcel w ith a 
mixture of lime and salt water ; those of the second 
were rubbed over merely with fine well-dried shell 
lime, such as the natives use with their betel, al- 
though I have no doubt but that recently prepared 
and well-sifted common lime would answer equally 
well; those of the third par el wcra mixed, unlimoJ 
with one-third of their weight of whole black pepper ; 
and those of the fourth also unlimed w ith the same 
proportion of cloves. They were then put iuto 
separate boxes with sliding tops, and numbered 1, 
2, 3, and 4, in the order I have mentioned them. 
At the expiration of the first year they were all 
sound. After that of the second, I found three worm- 
eaten nu's in No. 1, and two in No. 3, but those 
in Nos. 2 and 4 remained untouched. The injuied 
nuts were allowed to remiin, and after tho lapse of 
the third year, five worm eaten ones were discovered 
in No. i, three in No. 3, and two in No. 4, those 
in No. 2 being in their origiual state. Four years 
and four mouths have now elapsed since the com- 
mencement of these experiments, and upon examining 
the several parcels the other day, the number of 
decayed nuts lias not increased in Nos. 1, 3, and 4, 
thoso in No. 2 are as goo! as the day they were 
put into the box. These experiments not only prove 
the superiority of liming in tho dry way, but alsi 
the fact that the progress to general decay in a 
heap of nutmegs, eveu after tho insect ha' estab- 
lished itself, must be a work of years. In the shell 
they will keep for a great length of time. 1 b. ye 
myself kept ihero in this state fur six yerrs, and 
when cracked they were found perfectly sound, From 
tho report of the London brok-rs, how vcr, they 
will not answer in Europe on account it thi heavy 
allowance for shells, which is ouc-third of the Poightj 
but the Chinese merchants are in the duly kbit Ol 
exporting them to Penaug and China, where Ihey are 
in request. It is stated on tho best suthori'y, that 
unlimed or brown nutnifcgs as tho home deo irs odl 
them, mistd with cloves us in experiment N<\ 4 are 
highly esteemed in Kn-laiul, and even pretc red by 
snmu to tho limed produce ; umst probably from the 
gieite* fooQity of detecting tho llaws in t hem in their 
naked state. 
10. Although tho olove trco altaius great perfec- 
tion in tho red mould of Hint district'. It is m. ie 
partial to a less tenacious sod. lu cuUiv.ituui I ji 
