June i, 1892.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
My guinea chicks are fed on tangen, a kind of 
millet and white ants till they are a fortnight old, 
and then tliej' are fed on hajra, and after a little time 
will eat almost any grain and a little meat. Goslings 
I have only been able to rear on twiuien, letting the 
mother goose have them all day with her in the 
river and seeing them fed every morning and evening. 
Turkey chicks are given bread and milk or rice and 
milk at first, and then, later on, bran, onions and 
grain with a little meat or milk. The rest of the 
poultry are fed twice a day on peas, Indian corn, 
unhusked rice and wheat sometimes mixed and some- 
times in turn, as they tire of the same thing every 
day. 
In conclusion, 1 may add that my notes though 
hurried, may be serviceable to those who live in the 
district, where butcher's meat is not to be had, and 
a variety of food is very necessary and beneficial, 
and the only things procurable in the bazaar are the 
ordinary tasteless, the fieshless moorijlnt, occasionally 
wild duck, and quail, and the everlasting goat. 
Poultry farming does pay, as anyone, who will try my 
plan for a year or two, will find very few deaths 
occurring. In fact I may say so far all the deaths in 
my farmyard have been accidental such as ducklings 
being carried off by kites, fowls being torn by pariahs, 
&c., and these have been few and far between." — 
Indian Planfeiv' Gcm'tte. 
^ 
ALLSPICE. 
The term "a! spice," like many other trade terms, 
is merely a conventional one;, it has probably been 
applied to the sma'l brown globular berries because of 
their curious compound flavour, which is thought to 
comprehend that of cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg. The 
so called "allspice" is really the bmt the Eugeni 
pimenta, a member of the natural order of Myiiace(c. 
The tree is a beautiful evergreen, growing often as 
high as thirty feet, and it can be conveniently 
described as a species of large myrtle. The natural 
habitat of tlie Eugenia pimenta is the West Indies, 
but it is now cultivated almost exclusively in the 
island ef Jamaica, where it seems to thrive without 
much attention. If a plantation be near a town it. 
usually forms a favourite resort for the inhabitants, 
who love to saunter along the " pimento walks." 
There are nearly ten thousand acres of pimento trees 
under cultivation in Jamaica. After flowering, small 
racemes or bunches of tiny green harries appear 
upon the branches, and before they reach maturity 
they are picked, and spread out in the sun to dry. 
Some growers prefer to kiln-dry their produce. If 
the berries were allowed to ripen before being gathered, 
much of the characteristic flavour would be lost, 
for the essential oil, which chiefly resides in the 
shell, is most abundant in the unripe state. 
After a few days' exposure to the sub-tropical suu 
the ban-ies are sufficiently dried, and their green 
colour has changed to a characteristic clove-brown ; 
they are then stripped from their stalks and packed 
for ('xi)ort. Tlie berries chiefly consist of a woody 
shell coiitiiining a kernel, and in the shell are tiny 
spaces wliich serve as receptacles for the essential 
oil. - 
The history, of allspice, like that of most spices, 
is involved in nnich that is merely legendary. A 
very high value was set upon species by the ancients, 
wliich was due, perhaps, not to their being of any 
remarkably good use, but rather to their being diffi- 
cult to procure, for means of communication, es- 
pecially with tropical countries, were limited and 
dangei-ous. The old Spanish navigators gave the 
name piviiciila to the berries which we now call 
allspice, because tlioy thought they resembled in 
shape and pungency of taste the pepper berries with 
which they were already fan\iliar. Allspice appears 
to have lieen first mentioned by an olt chronicler 
named Clusius, who wrote a good deal in the early 
part of tlie sevouteoth century. We first hear of its 
appeal lUK'O in England from .I'lirkinson, who inforni.i 
us that at about the same time il was " being 
obtruded for amomum, so that some more audacious 
than wise put it in their compositions instead of the 
right." This amomum of which Parkinson speaks 
is probably the round cardamom seed. A writer in 
the latter part of the seventeenth century called Ray 
is the first Vv'ho speaks of Jamaica as the source of 
allspice. He also tells us that it was used as a con- 
diment like pepper, and commonly known by the 
name of "sweet-scented Jamaica pepper." It waa 
during the latter part of the eighteenth century and 
especially, the early part of the current century 
that allspice developed into such an important com- 
modity. 
In order to recognise any article that is liable to 
adulteration, it is important to be familiar with the 
microscope structure. Familiarity with appearances 
under the microscope can of course be best acquired by 
actual study, but here are the most important features. 
A section of the husk exhibits cells filled with 
essential oil, and stellate cells embedded in cellular 
tissue with spiral vessels and bundles of woody fibres. 
Membranes separate the shell from the inner kernel, 
and in these the microscopist will notice elongated 
and angular cells; one of these membranes contains 
cells of a deep port-wine colour which is very 
characteristic. Starch granules will chiefly be found 
in the kernel, and mixed up with them will be 
noticed angular and transparent cells of character- 
istic appearance. The chemical composition of all- 
spice, strangely enough, has not been throughly in- 
vestigated ; it is difficult to obtain access to any 
very recent complete analyses. In many respects 
it seems to resemble the composition of cloves. The 
berries contain a volatile oil, which contributes the 
peculiar flavour ; tannin, which accounts for their 
slightly a=itringent taste ; and starch, which is unim- 
portant for flavouring pui-poees. Dragendorff states 
that he has isolated an alkaloid from allspice which 
has an odour resembling that of conine ; now this 
substance smells like nothing so much as the odour 
of mice, so that it is a lucky thing for allspice that 
it contains so minute a quantity. The essential oil 
is the most important constituent of the spice. Pereira 
informs us that it really consists of two oils ; these 
he distinguished as light oil of pimento, which is a 
hydro-carbon, and heavy oil of pimento, which ia 
a substance possessing acid properties. The oil 
chiefly resides in the shel', and is best extracted by 
distillation with water. The yield of pimento oil is 
4 37 per cent, of the total weight of the seed, ac- 
cording to the authority of Whipple. 
Amongst other scientists, Olser and Gladstone have 
contributed to our knowledge of the chemistry of 
the fruit of pimento, bnt still there is room for 
more information. Perhaps the reason of our com- 
paratively imperfect knowledge of the chemistry of 
allspice exists in the fact that it is not much adultera- 
ted. If it had been subject to much adulteration, it 
is certain that analysis would have found it necessary 
to thoroughly investigate its constitution. When the 
spice is in a ground condition we may pos.sibly find 
starch, flour-, or other fine cereal matters mixed with 
it. The percentage of starch is small in the natural 
spice, so that this trick would easily be discoverpd. 
Ground allspice is well known as an important ingre- 
dient of "mixed spice." Of course, such a promiscuous 
name as "mixed spice" may cover a multitude of 
ingredients, but it really ought only to represent 
a mixture of ground allspice, ginger, cloves, and 
cinnamon. Mixed spice is rarely adulterated with 
anything but floury matters. Of the "substitutes" 
for allspice which are sometimes mixed in with 
the berries there are only the Pii/ienio aerin berries, 
those of the bay-berry tree, and those of the Pimi- 
enta di Tabasco, or Mexican spice. These berries are 
somewhat larger than those of true allspice, and by 
anyone who knows how to examine a sample, ought 
at once to be recognised from their different external 
characteristics. The consumption of allspice in 
Europe and the United States has considerably in- 
creased during the past few years; being ine.\pen- 
sive and possessing a very agreeable flavour, the 
spice forms a popular ingredient for domestic 
coikery. — (Ifocer. 
