428 PIMENTO. 
very distant part of the globe, to the poet's description of those balmy 
gales which convey to the delighted voyager 
" Sabean odours from the spicy shore of Araby the blest, 
Cheer'd with the grateful smell, old ocean smiles." 
The tree grows spontaneously, and seems to mock all the labours of 
man in his endeavours to extend or improve its growth, not one attempt 
in fifty to propagate the young plants, or to raise them from the seeds, 
in parts of the country where it is not found growing spontaneously, 
having succeeded. 
The usual method of forming a new pimento plantation (in Jamaica 
it is called a walk) is nothing more than to appropriate a piece of 
woodland, in the neighbourhood of a plantation already existing, or in 
a district where the scattered trees are found in a native state, the woods 
of which being fallen, the trees are suffered to remain on the ground 
till they become rotten, and perish. In the course of twelve months 
after the first season, abundance of young pimento plants will be found 
growing vigorously in all parts of the land, being, without doubt, pro- 
duced from ripe berries scattered there by the birds, while the fallen 
trees, &c, afford them both shelter and shade. 
At the end of two years it will be proper to give the land a thorough 
cleaning, leaving such only of the pimento trees as have a good appear- 
ance, which will then soon form groves, and except for the first four or 
five years, require very little subsequent attention. 
In July and August, soon after the trees are in blossom, the berries 
become fit for gathering, the fruit not being suffered to ripen on the 
tree, as the pulp in that state being moist and gelatinous, is difficult to 
cure, and when dry becomes black and tasteless. It is impossible, how- 
ever, to prevent some of the ripe berries from mixing with the rest, 
but if the proportion of them be great, the price of the commodity is 
considerably injured. 
It is gathered by the hand. One labourer on the tree, employed in 
gathering the small branches, will give employment to those below (who 
are generally women and children) in picking the berries, and an indus- 
trious picker will fill a bag of seventy pounds in the day. It is then 
spread on a terrace, and exposed to the sun for about seven days, in the 
course of which it loses its green colour, and becomes of a reddish- 
brown, and when perfectly dry it is passed through a fanner, bagged, 
and is ready for shipment. The term sometimes used to denote the in- 
gathering of the crop is not picking, but " breaking," because, with 
each cluster of berries a portion of the branch is broken off, the tree 
thriving all the better for the spoliation. 
The returns from a pimento walk in a favourable season are pro- 
digious. A single tree has been known to yield 150 lbs. of the raw 
fruit, or 1 cwt. of the dried spice, there being commonly a loss in 
weight of one-third in curing ; but this, like many other of the minor 
