CULTIVATION OF NUTMEGS AND CLOVES IN BENCOOLEN. 59 
terraced roof, and the stage is placed at an elevation of ten feet 
from the ground, having three divisions in it for the produce of 
different months. The nuts must be turned ever second or third 
day that they may all partake equally of the heat, and such as 
have undergone the smoking process for the period of two com- 
plete months and rattle freely in the shell, are to be cracked with 
wooden mallets, the worm-eaten and shrivelled ones thrown out, 
and the good ones rubbed over simply with recently prepared well 
sifted dry lime. They are now to be regarbled, and finally packed 
for transportation in tight casks, the insides of which have been 
smoked, cleaned, and covered with a coating of fresh water and 
lime. If packed in chests, the seams must be dammered to pre- 
vent the admission of air or water. There is no necessity for sort- 
ing them, as previously to their sale they are classed into sizes in 
the Company's warehouses in London. 
The mode generally practised in preparing nutmegs for the mar- 
kets, is to dip them in a mixture of salt water and lime, and to 
spread them out on mats for four or five days in the shade to dry. 
I am, however, convinced from much experience that this is a per- 
nicious practice, not only from the quantity of moisture imbibed 
in this process encouraging the breeding of insects and rendering 
the nuts liable to early decay, but from the heating quality of the 
mixture producing fissures and occasioning a great loss in the out 
turn ; whereas by liming them simply in the dry way as I have 
recommended, the loss ought not to exceed 8 per cent. In May, 
1816, I made some experiments on this subject. I cracked a quan- 
tity of nutmegs that had been smoke-dried for two months, and 
distributed them into four equal portions. I prepared the nuts of one 
parcel with a mixture of lime and salt water ; those of the second 
were rubbed over merely with fine well dried shell lime such as 
the natives use with their betel, although I have no doubt but that 
recently prepared and well sifted common lime would answer 
equally well ; those of the third parcel were mixed, unlimed, with 
one-third of their weight of whole black pepper : and those of the 
fourth, also unlimed, with the same proportion of cloves. They 
were then put into separate boxes with sliding tops, and number- 
ed 1, 2, 3 and 4, in the order I have mentioned them. At the ex- 
piration of the first year they were all sound. After that of the 
second, I found three worm eaten nuts in No. 1. and two in No. 3, 
