Ill 
NUTMEGS AND MACE 
119 
of guano on his trees, and found it unsatisfactory. He 
considered it the least beneficial substance that could be 
given to trees. It caused the trees to assume a deeper 
tint of foliage and at first to throw out young shoots, but 
there seemed to come a very unpleasant reaction after- 
wards, and he was inclined to think that the quality 
of the produce deteriorated. Some of the Chinese in 
Province Wellesley used the urine from the coolie lines, 
and others the night-soil. It is said, however, that if 
these manures are once used on a tree it is necessary 
always to use it, or the tree fails. 
It is probable that the evil effects of these manures 
are due to their too rapid decomposition in a hot tropical 
climate, and the production of excess of ammonia caused 
by this decomposition. Guano was quite a new manure 
in Dr. Oxley's time, and he probably used it in excess. 
If used in smaller quantities, and where possible allowed 
to rot till a portion of the ammonia has been dissipated, 
very different results might have been obtained. The 
Chinese in the Malay Peninsula keep their pigs in sties 
with a ffoor of planking above a large cemented tank, 
into which fall all the excrements of the animals. This 
pig-manure is highly approved of by the planters for 
nutmegs. They also use prawn-dust. This consists of 
the shells and waste bits of prawns used in making the 
well-known Malay condiment ‘‘ Blachan." Fish refuse, 
either used in a liquid form or solid, is considered very 
valuable, and blood and oilcake imported from Java are 
also considered by the Malays as very suitable manures. 
Dr. Oxley got excellent results from the carcasses of 
animals buried near the trees, and I have seen poor 
nutmeg trees develop into good fruiting trees very 
shortly after a dead pariah dog or two were buried at 
their roots. 
In some parts of the peninsula planters used bat 
guano from the limestone caves, which is found there 
in immense quantities, and consists of bat-dung mixed 
with lime in the form of a powdery dust. It was 
imported in junks from the Lanka wi Islands north of 
