Ill 
NUTMEGS AND MACE 
151 
and weight is about four to the ounce. They are sorted, 
therefore, according to weight. 
No. 1 grade gives 60 to 70 nuts to the pound. 
No. 2 grade gives 75 to 100 nuts to the pound. 
No. 3 grade gives 100 to 150 nuts to the pound. 
Broken or worm-eaten nuts, and those too small to be 
worth selling whole, are used for making butter, as 
described below. 
Packing . — The nutmegs are packed in casks which 
have been slightly smoked inside, and then treated to 
a thin coat of lime and water, or in chests. Care is to 
be taken that the cracks in the boxes are sealed up 
with dammar or other resin, to prevent the incoming of 
water. West Indian nutmegs are imported in barrels 
containing to 2 cwt., but sometimes in bags or even 
tea-chests. It is usual to sort them into sizes before 
packing, but this is not always done, the sorting being 
done on their arrival in Europe.^ 
USES 
The main use of nutmegs is as a spice, and for trade 
purposes they are valued according to size, as has been 
stated above, and smoothness, light colour, and freedom 
from admixture with long nutmegs, which are found 
mixed with the oval form, not that the long form of 
the genuine nutmeg is any way inferior to the oval 
one, but it is liable to be confused with the wild long 
nutmeg (Myristica argentea) of Papua. Singapore 
nutmegs are frequently darker in colour than those of 
Banda, Penang, and Ceylon, but the West Indian ones 
occasionally show darker patches of colour. 
Defective or broken nutmegs are used either by 
being ground to make powdered spice for seasoning 
sausages, or for making nutmeg butter. 
The nutmeg contains a quantity — about a fourth of 
its weight — of fat, which forms the nutmeg butter of 
^ E. M. Holmes, Pharmaceutical Journal, March 27, 1901, p. 419. 
2 Ibid. 
