186 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
of what a clove plantation may be expected to yield. The un- 
picked surplus is, therefore, left out of account. Treated thus 
it will help to neutralise the effect of basing our calculation 
upon an abnormally large crop. 
Our cloves were not subjected to the usual 25 per cent 
export drying. 
This reduces the income per tree to annas ; or E.54 
(£3 : 12s.) per acre with 90 trees to the acre. 
Cost of working a Clove Plantation . — Beyond purchasing 
drying mats and paying the harvesting expenses, the Arab 
spends little or nothing upon his clove trees. He employs his 
available labour, for the most part, in growing manioc, sweet 
potatoes, and bananas for food and for sale. Thus the resident 
Arab in charge of Marseilles, when we took it over in May, was 
expected to make 34 rupees a month by the sale of fruit and 
annuals, and was in consequence compelled to keep his men 
cultivating the open spaces, and to leave the trees alone. This 
is a fair sample of Arab practice ; it is a policy of looking after 
the pence and neglecting the pounds. The weeds on this 
shamba were half-way up the trees, in some cases climbing 
completely over them ; many were dying, and 1,000 have been 
killed outright. It cost us E.5 per acre to clear the land, 
reckoning 90 trees to the acre. We let out contracts, giving 
4 pice for each space between 4 trees. When the land has 
been once or twice thoroughly weeded over, the cost of cultiva- 
tion will be much reduced. In addition to cleaning the land 
we hope this year to dig round each tree, at a contract price 
of probably 1 or 2 pice per tree. At Dunga we are now doing 
this work with two mules and a plough. Drying mats cost 
30 rupees per 100, and baskets 3 rupees per score; 800 of the 
former and 100 of the latter were purchased for use at 
Machui, but at least half of these will be available for use 
again next year. There are no other outgoings to note beyond 
the overseer’s wages, the purchase of a few dozen hoes, and 
items such as thatching and repair of houses and sheds, always 
incidental to the management of an estate. It seems to me, 
indeed, that clove planting as an industry has been somewhat 
unworthily discredited. Over-production and the labour crisis 
have brought about the stagnation of all enterprise, but I 
believe that clove planting in Zanzibar would respond to 
European management and proper cultivation. The production 
of cloves must decrease as years go on, as no young plantations 
are being made to supply the waste among the old trees. Such 
a year as this must exact a heavy toll; the enormous yield, 
coming as it has done in a year of drought, will exhaust the 
