54 
CULTIVATION OF NUTMEGS AND CLOVES IN BENCOOLEN. 
verticels of the nutmeg trees or thin them of the unproductive and 
straggling branches. 
The site of a plantation is an object of primary importance, and 
doubtless the alluvial grounds are entitled to preference from the 
acknowledged fertility of their soil, and its appropriate organiza- 
tion and capability of retaining moisture, independent of the ad- 
vantage of water can iage. Several of the nutmeg trees of the 
importation of 1798 at Moco Moco, are placed in soil of this de- 
scription ; although never manured they are in the highest state 
of luxuriance and bear abundantly ; and I have been informed by 
a gentleman recently arrived from that station, that the stem of 
one of them measures 38 inches in circumference. Some of the 
trees in my own experimental garden, corroborate the truth of this 
assertion ; one of these blossomed at the earlv age of two years 
ten months and a half, a degree of precocity ascribable solely to 
its proximity to the lake which forms the southern boundary. 
This was the first tree that blossomed of the importation of 1803, 
which consisted of upwards of 22,000 nutmeg plants. Next to the 
alluvial deposits, virgin forest lands claim pre-eminence, their sur- 
face being clothed with a dark colored carbonized mould, formed by 
the slow decay of falling leaves and mouldering trunks of trees; and 
next to these are to be ranked the open plains. Declivities are ob- 
jectionable from the risk of the precipitation of the mould and ma- 
nure into the subjacent ravines, by the heavy torrents of rain that 
occasionally deluge the country. Above all, the plantation must 
be protected from the southerly and northerly winds by a skirting 
of lofty trees, and if nature has not already made this provision, 
no time should be lost in belting the ground with a double row of 
the Cassuarina littorea and Cerbera manghas, which are well 
adapted for this purpose. This precautionary measure will not 
only secure the planter against eventual loss from the falling off 
of the blossom and young fruit in heavy gales, but will prevent the 
up-rooting of the trees, a contingency to which they are liable 
from the slender hold their roots have in the soil. If the planta- 
tion is extensive, subsidary rows of these trees may be planted at 
convenient distances. No large trees whatever should be suffered 
to grow among the spice trees, for these exclude the vivifying 
rays of the sun and arrest the descent of the salutary night dews, 
both of which are essential to the quality and the quantity of the 
