Ill 
NUTMEGS AND MACE 
141 
The total production of nutmegs in the West Indies is so 
small that it is not taken into consideration in the preparation 
of statistics here or abroad. Not until the quality of British 
West Indian nutmegs is improved by cultivation can they be 
sold under their real names. 
The cultivation in Grenada, however, cannot at all 
be considered as a failure. In the Kew Bulletin, 1891, 
we find that “ about 10 acres of nutmegs at an altitude 
of 1100 ft. gave annual crops of nutmegs and mace 
valued at £1000 sterling. This, however, is very 
exceptional.” 
Mr. Gurney, in charge of Colonel Duncan’s estate, 
says the cultivation is a great help to the island. Most 
people have a few trees and most estates have some- 
areas of more or less established trees. The small- 
holders find it a source of weekly income, as he sells his 
crops to local dealers. An acre of trees at twenty-five 
years of age gave £25 profit and more. It takes, 
however, twelve years before the trees pay, and there is 
not much in the business under fourteen. 
In India the cultivation has never been of much 
success. In Calcutta the climate was found too cold for 
it in the cold season. Better results were obtained in 
the neighbourhood of the Nilgherries, especially in 
Courtallum. On the damper side of the ghats, Goa, 
Canara, and Malabar, it was cultivated, on the northern 
dryer side it suffered from want of the sea-air. It gave 
good fruit farther south in Tinnevelly. However, the 
cultivation was neglected or abandoned, and no nut- 
megs are produced in India now. In 1870-1871, 355 
kilograms, valued at 575 rupees, were exported from 
Bombay, and 2431 kilograms from Madras, valued at 
3012 rupees. 
In Ceylon, very little has been done in cultivating 
nutmegs. About 1853, according to Ferguson {All 
about Spices), a Mr. Anstruther, then Colonial Secretary, 
made long-continued and extensive efforts to make the 
cultivation of nutmegs successful, and about 25 acres 
were also planted on Sir John Wilson’s estate in Nilambe, 
