appendix.] WEST INDIES. 159 
cy, to those that come from the East Indies, and appear 
to me to contain a great deal more essential oil : for when 
exposed to heat, on pressing the nail on a clove, the essen¬ 
tial oil is perceived to come out of it; which is not the case 
with the East India cloves, at least such as I have bought 
in this island, for -the purpose of comparing them with 
mine. 
In curing the clove, I find it indispensable to have a 
stove, for the following reasons. After gathering cloves, I 
perceived that if they were not, within a short time after 
such gathering, faded either by the heat of the sun, or by 
that of a stove, that the greatest part of the cloves, on be¬ 
ing dried afterwards, acquired a light brownish hue, lost 
their firmness, strength, or pungency ; and many appear¬ 
ed as damaged cloves, and as the weather i-s exceedingly va¬ 
riable in this part of the world, and the air, in general, 
damp, particularly in the country, it will be absolutely ne¬ 
cessary to have a stove heated to the degree before men¬ 
tioned, and to leave the cloves in it till they are faded, I 
mean, until they have acquired a brown hue; after which 
the rest of the desiccation may be done at ease, by the heat 
of the sun, or by exposure in a dry airy room. 
The annual production of a clove tree in the Molucca 
Islands, according to the Abbb Raynal’s account, is about 
three pounds for each tree. There they are topped at from 
eight to nine feet, for the conveniency of gathering; but, 
in Cayenne, where they are left without topping, and 
where there are clove trees larger than our orange trees, it 
is reported, they produce from forty to fifty pounds each 
tree. 
The two trees, which, under my management,'' have 
produced cloves this year, on the Montpellier estate, have 
