TfiE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Oct. ]. 1901. 
under oonditiona corresponding to those they would 
encounter in a plantation here. Another small 
patch has been planted with stolons from the 
original plants and is growing well. 
Machui Plantation .-— Cl jve picking began in July. 
Our yield of cloves this seaon has been under 100 
fraslas as compared with 1,637 last season, so we 
have practically nothing to report about the crop 
except to say that it has been a failure. The trees 
however look well and I hope next year we shall 
see some return from the extra weeding we have 
given this plantation since we took it over. The 
yield of coconuts has also fallen off. We gathered 
93,489 nuts from about 3,106 trees, an average of 
abont 30 nut^ per tree. 75,000 of these were gathered 
during the first 7 months of the year. Trees always 
yield poorly after July, but the contrast this year 
has been striking ; moreover the nuts have been 
small. The net profit shown on this shamba for 
1898 was Es. 3,711 : and for 1899 Es. 2,384. The 
profit on the season, August 1893— July 1899, was 
Es. 5,917. This is after paying all expenses— weed- 
ing contract.s, overseer's wages, the planting of 
5,000 coi onnt trees and 12,000 seed nuts, from which we 
have 9,000 young plants ready to put out in April. 
The monthly expenditure averaged about Es. 200 
including overseer's wages. We intend this year 
to replant all the vacant places, amounting to 
several thousands, both in the Machui and Dunga 
clove plantations. 
Dunga Plantation.— Clove picking began at Dunga 
on July 24ih. The yield up to the end of Decem- 
ber has been about 190 fraslas with very little 
more indeed to come in. The 1898 99 crop amounted 
to 381 fraslas. The shipment of 35 bales (140 fraslas) 
of cloves we sent home last year to Messers. Gray, 
Dawes & Co., sold very well. The following corre- 
' spondence was received from Messrs, Gray, 
Dawes & Co., on the subject of these cloves: — 
"March 22nd, 1899. We have received your small 
shipment of thirty five bales cloves and are pleased 
to be able to report most favourably on the cout 
dition and quality. We class them as very fine 
picked Zanzibar cloves, bright heads and stems. 
Up to the present we have succeeded in selling 
twenty five bales at 5Jd. per lb. and we hope soon 
to be able to sell the remaining ten bales at the 
same price. This rate is fully 2d. above the market 
quotation, and we think we are right in saying that 
a difference to this extent between fair and fine 
cloves has never been realized before. " 
•'June 5th, 1899. As already explained there is 
only a very limited demand for fine cloves at 
such a high price, and should a shipment of say 
500 bales come forward they would only realize 
about id. per lb- over the market price for fair 
cloves. For shipments of say twenty to thirty bales 
at a time we think the high price could be kept 
up provided sales were not forced. " The remain- 
ing 10 bales were sold at 5d. As explained in my 
report for 1898 very simple measures were adopted 
in the preparation of these cloves. They included 
picking, as far as possible, only ripe cloves Cwhen 
picking is kept well in hand the difaculty is to 
prevent the people gathering geen cloves to make 
up their measure, geen cloves shrivel); separating 
the burst from the sound buds in the stalking; 
spreading out in the godown at night and never 
allowing any fermentation to set up ; turning over 
the dried heap every day ; passing the dried cloves 
through a screen to separate out the light heads 
and dirt. A portion of the cloves were dried in 
the glaas house, but I think this had not much to 
flo with the improvement in quality, though per- 
haps a little. The net proceeds of this small con- 
sionraent, after paying all expenses of freight, cora- 
missiou, etc, was Es. 1,332 equal to Es, 9i per 
fraala. Messrs. Gray, Dawes & Co. state that 
this high price could not probably be obtained for 
poie tbsm 20 OH 30 balea, but they also say 
that for large quantities of, say, 500 bales, Jd. 
per lb. over the market price for "fair" might be 
expected, which is equal to over a rupee a frasla, 
well worth the small extra expense and trouble 
incurred. His Highnes the Sultan directed me to 
construct some clove drying stages at iMaehui. 
They consisted of a number of square wooden 
frames 5ft. by 5ft., into each of which 4 sliding 
trays closed, one on the top of the other. The 
square frame or box was supported on 4 short 
posts and roofed over with makuti. The cloves 
are spread out on the shelves and remain there 
till dry. At night or in a shower of rain the 
four shelves can be at once closed, thus saving 
a great amount of labour, besides allowing the 
cloves free circulation of air. The trays are of the 
size of the ordinary drying mats and can be made 
either of canvas ,or of perforated zinc. They can 
be constructed by the plantation carpenter at little 
expense. We had not sufficient cloves at Machui 
to judge of their efficacy, but we erected two of 
the stages at Dunga for the sake of experiment 
and sent a sample of the cloves home to Messrs, 
Gray, Dawes & Co. who reported on them as 
follows: — "In the pre-ent state of the market [Dec. 
1899] they would we think realize 5Jd. per lb. in 
small quantities. Tbe cloves are nice and clean 
and heads particularly bright. A comparison of 
these with the shipment of 35 bales shows them 
to be of much finer appearance, although this is 
no donbt partly caused by the previous lot having 
gone off considerably through keeping. " We con- 
tinue to plough between the rows, to dig round 
the trees and to scatter a little manure, already 
with marked effect upon the appearance of the 
plantation, and we are now toppmg all except the 
largest trees. The tops of the trees can never be 
properly picked and are therefore better cut away. 
This, besides, developes lateral growth in the tree, 
keeping the buds within access of the pickers. Top- 
ping should also induce a more vigorous growth 
of leaf and bud. I believe that in the old days 
when labour was plentiful Arabs Bystematically top- 
ped their clove trees. 
The coconut trees at Dunga have not yielded 
Well, the average being 31 nuts per tree. The de- 
cline occurred during the latter half of the year. 
The number of trees bearing ripe nuts also showed 
a falling off as the year advanced, only 50 per cent, 
of the trees being climbed during the August 
gathering. The price has varied between Rs. 18 and 
Es. 25, A new plantation of 1,579 trees was laid 
out in April and May, the young palms being 
placed 35 feet apart. The gaps in the old 
plantations were also supplied. The receipts from 
the sale of fruit and from the rent of cultivating 
tenants amounted to Es. 18714-0 which just covers 
the cost of collection. This has been an extremely 
bad year for fruit of all kinds, with the exception 
of pineapples. 
Clove Eeturns, 
1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
Fraslas. 
537,845 
361,869 
332,521 
368,851 
483,881 
Season September to August. 
1895-6 
189«-7 
1&97-8 
1898-9 
Fraslas. 
579,955 
812,130 
188,957 
642,195 
During the 5 years, 1895-9, Pemba has yielded 73 
per cent., and Zanzibar 27 per cent., of the total. oropt 
