CULTIVATION OF NUTMEGS AND CLOVES IN BENCOOLEN. 
55 
produce. They further rob the soil of its fecundity, and inter- 
mingle their roots with those of the spice trees. It is true that by 
the protection they afford they prevent frequently the premature 
bursting of the husk, occasioned by the sudden action of a hot sun 
upon it when saturated with rain ; but the loss sustained in this 
way is not equal to the damage the spice trees suffer from these 
intruders. Extensive tracts of land are to be met with in the in- 
terior of the country, well adapted for the cultivation of the nut- 
megs and cloves, and to these undoubted preference is due. 
In originating a nutmeg plantation, the first care of the cultiva- 
tor is to select ripe nuts, and to set them at the distance of a foot 
apart in a rich soil, merely covering them very lightly with mould. 
They are to be protected from the heat of the sun, occasionally 
w r eeded, and watered in dry weather every other day. The seed- 
lings may be expected to appear in from 30 to 60 days, and when 
four feet high, the healthiest and most luxuriant, consisting of 
three or four verticels, are to be removed, in the commencement of 
the rains, to the plantation, previously cleared of trees and under 
wood by burning and grubbing up their roots, and placed in holes 
dug for their reception, at the distance of eighty feet from each 
other, screening them from the heat of the sun and violence of the 
winds. It is a matter of essential importance that the ground be 
well opened and its cohesion broken, in order to admit of the free 
expansion of the roots of the tender plants, and that it be intimate- 
ly mixed with earth and cow manure, in the proportion of two- 
thirds of the former to one-third of the latter. The plants are to be 
set in rows as well for the sake of regularity as for the more con- 
venient traversing of the plough, which is now to be employed in 
clearing the intermediate spaces of lallang and other noxious 
grasses, carefully avoiding to trespass on the beds of the trees. 
They must be watered every other day in sultry weather, manured 
annually during the rains with four garden baskets full of the above 
mentioned compost to each tree, and protected from the sun until 
they attain the age of five years. They will now be sufficiently 
hardy to bear the sun, and from that age until their fifteenth year, 
the compost should consist of equal parts of cow dung and burnt 
earth, and from eight to twelve baskets full will be required for 
each bearing tree, a lesser proportion being distributed to the 
males. From the power of habit the trees will, after the fifteenth 
