V 
PIMENTO OR ALLSPICE 
199 
CULTIVATION 
The tree is raised from seed. The ripe seed is 
washed to free it of the pulp of the fruit, which, if not 
removed, becomes hard and dry, and prevents the 
germination. However, most of the Jamaica planta- 
tions have been formed by clearing the bush and 
allowing the seedlings, which spring from seed carried 
about and dispersed by birds, to grow. The best 
results have been obtained when the trees are planted 
20 ft. apart. 
The soil may be poor, so long as it is fairly light 
and well drained. Mr. W. Bancroft Espeut, in a lecture 
on the timbers of Jamaica, describes the method of 
cultivation thus : — 
It is only necessary to dig the soil in order to loosen it and 
remove old stumps and roots, to lay, say, 1 in. of leafy mould 
and sand in equal parts on the surface, water it well if the 
weather is dry, and scatter, not bury, the quite ripe fresh- 
gathered pimento berries, and cover the land with straw or 
some other shade-yielding material, and keep it moist. In a 
very short time, three or four weeks, thousands of young seed- 
lings will make their appearance. These should be thinned out, 
the surplus seedlings being transplanted to other land suitably 
prepared. Care must be taken not to remove the shade stuff 
too suddenly, but gradually, so as to harden off the young 
plants. 
The trees can be grown to an elevation of about 
3,000 ft. in the West Indies, and commence to flower 
when they are from seven to ten years old. The 
crops of berries increase each year till the tree reaches 
maturity, that is to say, when it is about eighteen or 
twenty years old. It will continue to bear, if properly 
treated, for a great number of years, longer, indeed, than 
the average life of a man. 
Mr. Adam Eoxburgh, in an account given in 
CundalTs Jamaica in 1905, states that growers of all- 
spice distinguish between fruitful or bearing trees and 
unfruitful or so-called ‘‘ male ” trees. The two trees are 
