4^0 ME TkOPICAL AGRlCULlrUfelST. [Jan. 1, 1900. 
with dry lime-powder either by rubbing tliem 
between the hands or shaking tliem in Viarrels. 
In the wet process the nuts are thrown into 
the newly slaked lime upon wliich they aie 
spread over the floor ' to dry. Dr. Jnnse 
mentions having seen on his vi-ic to Banda that 
small bnsketfiils of nuts were dipped into the 
slaked lime and the nuts heaped into little piles. 
In order to ensure the best appearance for the 
mace, a careful treatment is equally required. It 
loses of course when dried the bright purple hue, 
which it possesses in its natural state, but the 
orange colour should be as vivid as possible. 
In contrast with the nut, niaCe contains only 7 
to 9 per cent of etherial oil, Imt it holds an abun- 
dance (23 per cent) of aromatic bnlm. 
Immediately wiien the mace is loosened from 
the nut, the fresh substance is spread out during 
the night on matting or flat wickerwork. Wlieu 
the weather is fine it is cured in the sun in a few 
days. During the process of drying it is trodden 
fiat in order to facilitate the packing and avoid its 
breakit g when in a perfectly drj- state. 
The only woric on the estates now remaining is 
the packing and forwarding. 
AVe might now pass to a review of the nutmeg 
and mace trade, taken into Europe and it^ prin- 
cipal emporiums Amsterdam and Rotterdam, but 
■we consider it necessary first to refer to the places 
of inferior produce and the diseases to which the 
plant is subject outside Banda. 
ATTEMPTS TO ACCLIMATIZE NUTMEGS OUTSIDE 
BANDA. 
When in 1839 the Government gave its sanction 
nnd assistance to transplant the nutmeg trees from 
Banda and Amboina to the other parts of the 
Dutch Archipelago, cultivation began to spread 
and the plant was also introduced into Minahassa 
(North Celebes). What the natives produce in 
Ambon is of less importance than that in Mina- 
hassa. Its cultivation dates especially from the 
great destruction caused in the Banda Islands by 
the gale of 1778. Cultivation of nutmegs in Ceyloyi 
dates from 1798, that around Singopore from 
1819. 
In the French Mascarenes, off Madagascar, nut- 
megs were imported about 1770. Though atone 
time the cultivation raised favorable expectations, 
it has since dwindled into nothing, the cyclones 
having been the chief obstacle. 
Even poorer results were achieved on the plan- 
tations in Madagascar and in Zanzibar. 
Lately an attempt has been made to acclamatize 
the nutmeg tree in German West Africa, but thus 
far in the botanical gardens only. 
In South America, French Guyana, where the 
plant was introduced by the French in 1772, it did 
not flourish. From there it was brought to Brazil 
in 1809, where it is found even now in solitary 
ppecimens only. Also in Dutch Guyana, Venezuela, 
Mexico, the West Indies and on the West Coast of 
South America, the nutmeg trees have never 
yielded a produce of any importance. Though 
during a short period the English plantations in 
Trinidad seemed likely to thrive, the ultimate 
Buccess was poor. 
POOB, EESULTS OUTSIDE BANDA. 
Everywhere in these regions, either the winds 
or the unforeseen continual droughts hive disil- 
lusionised the planters there, and after all the 
naturally appointed place for the nutmeg produce 
of the world remains in Asia, and especially iu 
the Moluccan Archipelago, where it has found for 
hundreds of years, together with the soil suitable 
for the plant, the favourable climatic dispositions 
without which the ''trees that bear gold " cannot 
be expected to yield ever-abundant crops. 
DISEASES OF THE NUTMEG THEE. 
Like every ether plant of tropical culture the 
nutmeg tree is subject to many diseases- Of these 
we may name : 
1. 7'he Bark-disease which without any previ- 
ous symptom destroys part of a plant, sometimes 
in a day. Sucli a tree may be saved by cutting 
away the affected parts. The disease generally 
attacks the stems, it being a great exception that 
the branches alone are attacked. However great 
the ravages may have been elsewhere even des- 
troying the gardens entirely, as in 1860 round 
Singapore and Penang, the bark-disease has never 
shown itself in the Banda islands. 
What is indeed bark-disease says Dr. Janse, but 
what Dr. Warburg has treated as a separate 
malady, is the ichite ayit-plague. White ants are 
not injurious to sound trees, but on the least 
symptom of decay in a tree, they muster in their 
thousands and the affected tree is hopelessly 
doomed. They seem to have a particular aversion 
to hog-dung, but to have rather a predilection for 
cow-dung. 
As another case of bark-disease Dr. Janse men- 
tions the root fungus, which is practically the same 
disease only appearing below the surface. 
2. The Premature Opening of the Fruit. — Of the 
losses which a planter suffers regularly every year, 
the premature opening of the fruit may be con- 
sidered the principal cause. In this case the 
nutmeg is either totally unfit for the market or it 
gets wrinkled. In bad years the loss owing to 
this cause amounts to half or even three-quarters 
of the crop, It is known either as boeka poetih, 
boeka moeda,pala reboes, boeka massaq or " Kerang^' 
when the premature opening is caused by a 
fungus. 
3. Star-spotted fruits. — This disease also brought 
about by kind of fungus according to Dr. 
Janse, is classified by Dr. Warburg as nutmeg 
cancer. It is rarely met with in Singapore but 
raged severely in Penang. 
4. White thread cancer (Benang poetih), Black 
thread cancer (Benang hitam) are diseases which 
specially attack the leaves and branches. 
5. Parasite plants (kajoe menoempang) and 
Animal Parasites (Boor-boor, gaai, etc.) as well a? 
Blight and Fieldmice are amongst the plagues to 
which weak trees are more or less exposed. 
Though we cannot enter into further details 
which would ask a good many pages, this con- 
densed enumeration of plagues and diseases easily 
accounts for the disastrous results that have over- 
taken sooner or latter the cultivation of nutmegs 
outside the Indian Archipelago. 
