122 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
trees prove females, and there is no need for troubling 
about the comparatively few males. 
The Chinese in Penang and Province Wellesley cut 
down every pure male tree as soon as it is possible to 
distinguish the sex, so that the few bisexual trees they 
possess have to supply all the pollen for the females. 
In Malacca they leave the males, unless there are too 
many in the plantation, when they cut them out, and in 
any case do not waste any manure on them. Besides 
manuring, occasional pruning and destroying parasites 
and insect pests, and such weeding as is absolutely 
necessary, there is little for the planter to do till the 
trees begin to fruit, which is usually about the sixth year. 
GROWTH OF THE TREE 
The trees in Banda grown in rich soil and under 
shade attain a much greater height than those of the 
Straits Settlements grown in full sun and in poor soil. 
In Banda 50 or 60 ft. in height is not an uncommon size, 
and Dr. Oxley states that he saw some which he thought 
could not be less than 70 ft. tall. They commence to 
fruit generally in the eighth or ninth year, and are not 
considered in their prime until they are about twenty- 
five years old. They are said to bear well up to sixty 
years, and even longer. The male tree is said to be 
shorter lived than the female. 
In Penang, on the other hand, the trees are much 
shorter, usually about 20 to 25 ft. tall, bushy and com- 
pact. Old trees grown in shade have often a wide 
spread, but they do not attain any great height. 
They commence to fruit between the fifth and sixth 
years, occasionally earlier, but many (and this is preferred) 
only commence to fruit in the eighth or ninth year. 
They are at their best in fifteen years, and fruit well for 
ten or twenty years more. Thus the whole life history 
is shorter in the Straits Settlements than in the Moluccas. 
This is presumably due to the somewhat unnatural 
method in which the cultivation is carried on in the 
