124 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
heavy croppers, while others are much less productive. 
This depends chiefly on the soil and the method of 
cultivation, amount of shading, distance between the 
trees, amount and quality of manuring. Dr. Oxley, 
writing of the cultivation in Penang and Singapore, says : 
“The best trees do not show flower before the ninth 
year, and one such tree is worth a score of others. 
This will be evident when it is stated that I have seen 
several trees which yield more than 10,000 nuts in a 
year, whereas I believe there is not a plantation in 
Singapore that averages 1000 from every tree.” 
Nicholls mentions trees as giving 20,000 nuts a year. 
Warburg states that in Banda trees seldom give as 
much as 3000, Simmonds gives from 1000 to 5000, 
and a tree in Jamaica is said to have given 4000. 
Good trees should average from 1500 to 2000 nuts 
a year. 
In the matter of weight, each tree should give 10 lb. 
of nutmegs to 1 lb. of mace. Some trees give much 
more than this. Hopkins, quoted by Crawford, gives 10 
to 14 lb., Olivier 12 to 15 lb., Hogendorp 15 to 20 
lb., and De Sturler mentions a tree as giving 30 to 40 
lb. of nuts and 9 to 12 lb. of mace. 
In Ceylon, Mr. Dewar says that in his experience 
about 750 lb. weight of nutmegs, including the shells, 
and 120 lb. of mace may be obtained from an acre of 
trees in full bearing. In Grenada, where nutmeg 
cultivation has been very successful, a tree has given as 
much as £30 worth of nutmegs in the year. 
In studying these figures it must be remembered 
that the nutmegs vary much in size, large ones being 
much more highly valued than small ones, weight for 
weight, and that some trees may give a comparatively 
small number of large nutmegs and be more valuable 
than others which give a larger number of small ones. 
CROPPING 
The tree fruits more or less all the year round, but 
as a rule in most places the heaviest crop is obtained in 
