78 
THE TROPICAL AGiaCULTURIST. 
[Al-gust 1, 1898. 
Anatto. — Anatto grows well he.'e but the market 
ia too depressed to encourage cultivation Seedlings 
are baing raised at Diiug<t for vanilla shade. 
Caiaphof, Safjlowcr, Oiii:ea, iSarsaiiarUl.a. — Cainplior, 
Safliuwer, Olives and Sarsaparilla have proved ua- 
sucuessful, and their cultivation will be discontinued. 
lioia Immoiielle (Cocoa /Shade trees) — The Bois im- 
morielle ttees liave grown very freely. 
Eucali/ptui. — Small success has attended the efforts 
to grow gnni trees. 
fjlQiicss. — Some experiments have been made with a 
view to ascertaining whether it were pcssible to 
produce a sample of clovus here equal to the beat 
Penang and Amboyua. 'llie experiments leave little 
doubt that this can be accomplished. An exami- 
nation of the table (see next paj^e) shows that ihe 
buds should be pi';keJ when' the stems are pink. 
If the stems (calyx tubas) are allowed to get red 
the flowers are very apt to open during the pro- 
cess of drying, and the little round heads (imbricated 
petals) will drop off, to the detriment of the sample. 
This is what happened in sample. No. 2. On the olher 
hand if the stems are green— too vonng— the dried 
cloves will be shrivelled. I'ink bold heads make the 
best samples. Arabs probably knosvihis; they also 
know that seleoiing the buds in the proper stage 
of ripeness involves more labour in the picking than 
they can afford at present. Cloves grow on the trees 
in bunches and each bunch will generally contain 
from six to ten buds in different stages of ripeness. 
The labourers pluck the whole bunch when most 
of the cloves on it appear to be ready ; a much 
more rapid process than picking singly would be. 
Whether it is possible to apply a speedy and in- 
expensive method of sorting afterwards is a question 
for further experiment. ^ . , , 
A firm of Engineers (Messrs. Raiuforth and Sons, 
Lincoln, England) have at my request, been endea- 
vouring to separate the good cloves by means of a 
screening machine and report as under: — 
" We have made several lenythy experiments . . 
but were unsuccessful in making a separation. We 
submitted the sample to Messrs. Gray Dawes and 
Co. and they said the chillies were very slightly 
improved, and the cloves actually damaged. Their 
opinion is that it will be iinpotsible to get a machine 
to do the work and we must confess we are of the 
same opinion." „ ^ . ^ 
Mr. Hugh Garden of Messrs. Gray Dawes & Co. 
also wrote as follows: — 
"They (Messrs. Kainforth and Sons) have sent 
me samples of chillies which are rather improved, 
but as so many stalks still adhere it would not 
appreciably effect the value. The cloves on the 
other hand are distinctly damaged ; the dry bright 
head has been removed and the cloves which pre- 
viously passed as fair would now be one eighth under." 
TOTAL YIELDS. 
Frasilas. Total frasilas. 
Zanzibar cloves 116,391 
Pemba ,, .Syi.4.>l 537,815 
Zanzibar ,, 119,781 
Pemba „ 212,085 301,869 
1897 Zanzibar ,, 91,071 
Pemba „ 210,950 332,521 
Averaae Zanzibar „ 119,219 
3 yeax'S. Pemba „ 291,196 410,715 
The quality of the cloves depends also, though to 
a less extent, upon the drying as well as upon the 
nicking. The experiments at Dunga seem to show 
that the cloves should be submitted to a high tem- 
perature and dried rapidly. I believe that most 
Arabs overdvy their cloves. They expose them to 
the sun till they become black and dried up, and 
much of the oil evaporated. The stem of a properly 
dried clove should be tough and should yield slightly 
to the strain before breaking. I think that an 
effective system of drying cloves under glass could 
be introduced here with little expense. Some authori- 
ties are of opinion that, if all the Zanzibar and 
Pemba cloves were placed upon the market in the 
best) possible condition, the price would not be in- 
1895 
1896 
creased beyond what it is likely to reach under pre- 
Viiiliiig conditions; low prices being due to over 
production. The recent abolition of the legdl status 
of slavery will, it ie acknowledged, withJraw a lot 
of labour from the Arab bhamb is, and the yearly 
yield of cloves suffer iu couseijai^ace. Concuitent 
improvement iu the quality of the product should 
therefore, if it can be accouiplibhed, tend to ler-sen 
the cUect of a decliuing crop. The short crop of 
1897-98 is probably due to dry weatherquile as much 
as to scarcity ol labour. I noticed iu October that 
comparatively few cbves remained upou the trees 
in the Pemba pUntatione, and in this respect Pemba 
compared "ery favourably witli Zanzibar, where a 
considerable proportion of the coves were left uu- 
picked. Dr. Charleswoith reports that the lainfiill 
for the second half of tne year was only 1»-51 inches 
compared with the previous live years' average of 
24 :J2. This c'iflereuce practically am ounts to a 
drought, and is quite enough to explain auy eccentri- 
city in tlie output of cloves. 
Cliitlui. — About three acres of coral waste have 
been cieareJ of scrub and ^dinted in chillies. The 
dry wealhi-r has hindered the growth of the plauts, 
so that we have as yet no results to reports. 
Cantor Seeds. — An enquiry was made iu Loudon u 
to the market condition of Castor seeds, and samples 
of both the large and small varieties of Castor 
Seeds were, in May, sent home to Messrs. Gray 
Dawes and Co. to be repoitcd upou. On Jllay bth 
Mr. Hugh Garden wrote as under: — 
'■From their appearance I did not think they were 
equal to Madras ccast seeds which are very full 
of oil; but I have had them reported on both [ia 
Marseilles and London. In Marseilles our agent 
writes that both samples are very clean sound seed 
and they make very little difference iu value between 
the large and the small. In London they state that 
most crushers give the preference to the larse beans 
although both are of good quality: the difference 
in favour of the large being about 2e. Cd. per ton 
1 have made a rough calculation and make to-day'a 
price c. i. f. London or Jlarseilh.-s about £9.10.0 per 
ton, without allowing for any excessive admixture 
of non oleaginous seed. In London they charge 
shippers with anything over a"^ q and in Marseilles 
■4° o- To-day's prices however are very high, owing 
to scarcity, and I have known the seed fully £3 
per ton under the above price." 
Castor oil trees, though they grow wild in Zan- 
zibar, dont appear to yield much weight of seed. 
We make a point of collecting the seed from all the 
trees round about Dunga, but as yet we have got 
only quite an insignificant quantity together. The 
oil is worth about £M a ton in London which com- 
pares well with coconut oil at ii23. 
I'apai/i. — Enquiries have also been made in London 
regarding Papain and the following communication 
from Mr. Hugh Garden was received in April: — 
" I have received the following information from 
one of the first authorities : — The dried price of 
I'apaw fruit is a powerful digestive agent and dif- 
fers from Pcpiin in begin active in neutral and 
alkaline solutions. The Papain of commerce is pre- 
jiared from it by solution of the crude juice in water, 
and precipitation by alcohol. Only small quantities 
of the crude concentrated juice have hitherto reached 
this country, and therefore the price at which it 
has been sold has only been a nominal value. So 
far as my observation goes, and the matter has 
been the subject of considerable experiment by my 
son, the substance is not likely to come into ex- 
tensive use. and I should think that the import 
would hardly be worth consideration by you." 
Messrs. Thomas Christy and Co., of 25 Lime 
Street were good enough to send out a sample of 
the dried juice with the following: — 
"In reply to your query regarding Papaw we mav 
tell you that we import the dry juice of this plant 
iu large quantities. We belive the way of drying 
it is to place the juice upon slabs of glass or earthen- 
ware so that it has a smooth surface to dry upon. 
This is exposed till it is thoroughly dry and the 
