58 
CULTIVATION OF NUTMEGS AND CLOVES IN BENCOOLEN. 
and a quarter of mace. I have observed, however, that some 
trees produce every year a great quantity of fruit, whilst others 
constantly give very little. It bears all the year round, but more 
plentifully in some months than in others. The great harvest 
may generally be looked for in the months of September, October, 
November and December, and a small one in April, May and June. 
Like other fruit trees on this portion of Sumatra, I have remarked 
that it yields most abundantly ever other year. The fruit hav- 
ing ripened, the outer integument bursts spontaneously, and is 
gathered by means of a hook attached to a long stick, and the 
mace being cautiously stripped off and flattened by the hands in 
single layers, is placed on mats for three or four days in the sun to 
dry. Some planters cut off the heels and dry the mace in double 
blades, from an opinion that the insect is apt to breed in or about 
the heels, and that the double blades give a better and more sub- 
stantial appearance to the mace. The former idea is entirely 
groundless, for if the article be properly cured, kept in tight pack- 
ages in a dry situation, and exposed to the sun for five or six 
hours once a fortnight, there need be no apprehension of the in- 
sect ; and if it is not, it will assuredly be attacked by it whether 
the heels be cut off or not ; again, the insect is much more likely 
to nestle within the fold of the double blade, and the fancied su- 
periority of appearance has so little weight with the purchaser, as 
not to counterbalance 4 , the risk of probable deterioration and even- 
tual loss. In damp and rainy weather the mace should be dried 
by the heat of a charcoal fire, carefully conducted so as not to 
smoke it or blacken its surface. 
The nuts liberated from their macy envelope are transported to 
the drying house, and deposited on the elevated stage of split nee- 
bongs, placed at a sufficient distance from each other to admit of 
the heat from a smouHering fire beneath, without suffering even 
the smallest nuts to pass through. The heat should not exceed 
140° of Fahrenheit, for a sudden inordinate degree of heat dries 
up the kernels of the nuts too rapidly, and its continued applica- 
tion produces fissures in them, or a fermentation is excited in them 
which increases their volume so greatly as to fill up the whole 
cavity of the shell, and to prevent them from rattling when put to 
this criterion of due preparation. The fire is lighted in the night. 
The smoking house is a brick buiding of a suitable size, with a 
