184 Mr Lumsdaine mi the Cultivation (^Spices 
covered with a coating of fresh water and lime. If packed in 
chests, the seams must be dammered to prevent the admission 
of air or water. There is no necessity for sorting them, as, pre- 
viously to their sale, they are classed into sizes in the Com- 
pany’s warehouse in London. 
The mode generally practised in preparing nutmegs for the 
market, is to dip them in a mixture of salt-water and lime, and 
to spread them out on mats for four or five days in the shade 
to dry. I am, however, convinced, from much experience, that 
this is a pernicious practice, not only from the quantity of mois- 
ture imbibed in this process, encouraging the breeding of in- 
sects, and rendering the nuts liable to early decay, but from the 
heating quality of the mixture producing fissures and occa- 
sioning a great loss in the out-turn ; whereas, by liming them 
simply in the dry way, as I have recommended, the loss ought 
not to exceed 8 per cent. In the shell they will keep for a great 
length of time: I myself have kept them in this state for a 
great length of years, and when cracked they were found perfectly 
sound. From the report of the London brokers, however, 
they will not answer in this way in Europe, on account of the 
heavy allowance for shells, which is one-third of the weight ; 
but the Chinese merchants are in the daily habit of exporting 
them to Finang and China, where they are in request. 
Although the clove-tree attains great perfection in the red 
mould of these districts, it is more partial to a less tenacious 
soil. Its cultivation has been established for many years in the 
West Indies and at Bourbon, and is of secondary importance 
only. The mother cloves are planted in rich mould, at the dis- 
tance of twelve inches from each other, screened from the sun 
and duly watered. They germinate within five weeks, and 
when four feet high, are to be transplanted at intervals of thirty 
feet, with a small admixture of sand with the red mould, so as 
to reduce its tenacity, and are to be cultivated in the same mode 
as the nutmegs, only that when full grown, they require less 
manure in the proportion of one-third. They yield generally 
at the age of six years, and at that of twelve are in their highest 
state of bearing, , when the average produce may be estimated 
at six or seven pounds of marketable fruit each tree during the 
Larvest, which takes place in the rainy months, but with us they 
