at Btncoolen^ in the Idand of' Sumatra, 
have hitherto borne two crops in three years only. The fruit 
is terminal, and when of a reddish hue, is plucked by the hand, 
so that the process of gathering it is tedious. It is then dried 
for several days on mats in the sun, until it breaks easily be- 
tween the fingers, and assumes a dark brown colour. It loses 
about 60 per cent, in drying. When past its prime, the clove- 
tree has a ragged and uncombed appearance, and I am led to 
suppose that its existence is limited to twenty years, unless in 
very superior soil, in which it may drag out a protracted and 
unprofitable state of being to the period of perhaps twenty-four 
years. Hence it becomes necessary to plant a succession of 
seedlings, when the old trees have attained eight years of age, 
and this octennial succession must be steadily kept in view. 
With reference to the number of labourers, cattle, and ploughs 
necessary for a plantation of 1000 nutmeg or clove- trees, after 
the ground has been thoroughly cleared of underwood and 
stumps of trees, I consider that seven Chinese, or active Benga- 
lee labourers, fifty head of cattle, and two ploughs, would be 
sufficient for all =the purposes of the cultivation, with the excep- 
tion of collecting the clove harvest, which being a very tedious 
process, would require an £xtra number of hands, and, indeed, 
the best plan would be to gather it in by contract. 
I have very great satisfaction in affording my individual tes- 
timony to the energy and zeal which actuate the great body of 
the planters, and of the correspondent improvement of their re- 
spective plantations. Without mentioning the names of indi- 
viduals who have been foremost in this race of emulation, suffice 
it to say, that the plantations generally exhibit tokens of pro- 
gressive amelioration, and that such of the trees of the importa- 
tion of 1798 as have been duly cultured, are in the highest de- 
gree of healthy vigour, and productiveness. 
It would be unreasonable to expect that such felicitous results 
could have been realised without proportionate sacrifices. In 
.the first era of the speculation, the cultivators had to contend, 
on the one hand, with Nature, in exploring and eliciting the la- 
tent properties of a soil notable only for its supposed indomi- 
table sterility ; while, on the other hand, the problematical suc- 
cess of the undertaking and extent of capital requisite to con- 
duct it to a prosperous issue, involved considerations of no trk 
