The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom by P. L. Simmonds

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CASSIA BUDS are the dried flower buds (perianth and ovary) of the
cassia tree, and are mostly brought from China. They bear some
resemblance to a clove, but are smaller, and when fresh have a rich
cinnamon flavor. They should be chosen round, fresh, and free from
stalk and dirt. They are used chiefly in confectionery, and have the
flavor and pungency of cassia. The exports from Canton in 1844 were
21,500 lbs.; in 1850, 44,140 lbs., valued at 7,400 dollars. The
average quantity of cassia buds imported into the United Kingdom, in
each of the thirteen years ending with 1842, was 40,231 lbs.; the
average quantity entered for home consumption in these years was 6,610
lbs., and the average annual amount of duty received was L312.

Cassia bark yields a yellow volatile oil, called oil of cassia, the
finer kind of which differs but little in its properties from that of
cinnamon, for which it is generally substituted; it has a specific
gravity of 1071. The best is manufactured in China, where the wood,
bark, leaves and oil are all in request. The cassia oil is rated at
150 dollars per picul, and the trade in this article reaches about
250,000 dollars.

CANELLA ALBA, or wild cinnamon, is a valuable and ornamental tree,
growing about fifteen feet high, which is cultivated in South America
and the West Indies for its pungent bark, which is shipped to this
country in bales or cases, in long quills and flat pieces, something
like cinnamon. Large old cuttings root readily in the sand. It is
grown chiefly in the Bahama Islands, from whence we derive our
supplies.

By the Caribs, the ancient natives of the West Indies, and the
negroes, it was first employed as a condiment. In this country it is
chiefly used as an aromatic stimulant and tonic, ranking between
cinnamon and cloves. The bark possesses, however, no other quality
than its hot spicy flavor and strong aromatic odor when exposed to the
action of heat.

CASCARILLA BARK is obtained chiefly from the _Croton cascarilla_, a
small shrub growing at St. Domingo, the Bahama Islands, and the
Antilles. The chief portion comes from Eleuthera. In Hayti a pleasant
kind of tea is made from the leaves. Other species of the family
supply some of the bark of commerce.

From its strong and aromatic properties it has been found very
efficacious in all febrile diseases, and vies with the Jesuits' bark;
as a tonic it has very wholesome qualities, a pleasant and strong
bitterness, and was for some time held in considerable repute among
the faculty.

About twenty years ago, large shipments were made from the Bahamas.
It was found, upon adulteration with hops, to reduce the cost of that
article, and for the encouragement of the hop grower a prohibitory
impost was laid upon it by the Home Government, consequently it became
an unsaleable product.

The sea-side balsam, or sweet wood (_Croton Eleuteria_), from which
some cascarilla bark is obtained, grows in the Bahama Islands and
Jamaica, but almost all the bark imported comes from Nassau, New
Providence. In 1840, 15,000 lbs. were imported for home consumption.

This bark produces the combined effect of an aromatic and of a
moderately powerful tonic; but it does not possess any astringency. It
has been employed as a substitute for cinchona. When burned it gives
out a musky odor, and is often used in pastiles.

The value of this bark ranges, according to quality, from 17s. 6d. to
43 s. per cwt.

CLOVES.

The cloves of commerce are obtained from the flower buds of
_Caryophyllus aromaticus (Eugenia caryophyllata_), which was
originally a native of the Moluccas, but is now cultivated in several
parts of the East and West Indies. They have the form of a nail, and
when examined are seen to consist of the tubular calyx with a roundish
projection, formed by the unopened petals. It is a very handsome tree,
growing to the height of about twenty feet. The trunk is straight, and
rises four or five feet before it throws out branches. The bark is
smooth, thin, of a grey color, and the wood of the trunk too hard for
ordinary cabinet work.

The leaves are opposite, smooth, narrow, pointed, of a rupous color
above, and green on the under side. They have a very aromatic odor
when bruised between the fingers. The flowers produced in branched
peduncles, at the extremity of the bough, are of a delicate peach
color. The elongated calyx, forming the seed vessel, first changes to
yellow, and, when ripe, red, which is from October to December, and in
this state it is fit to gather. If left for a few weeks longer on the
trees, they expand, and become what are termed "mother cloves," fit
only for seed or for candying. The ground under the tree is first
swept clean, or else a mat or cloth is spread. The nearest clusters
are taken off with the hand, and the more distant by the aid of
crooked sticks. Great care should be taken not to injure the tree, as
it would prevent future bearing.

The cloves are then prepared for shipment by smoking them on hurdles
near a slow wood fire, to give them a brown color, after which they
are further dried in the sun. They may then be cut off from the flower
branches with the nails, and will be found to be purple colored
within, and fit to be baled for the European market. In some places
they are scalded in hot water before being smoked, but this is not
common. The tree may be propagated either from layers or seed. Layers
will root in five or six months if kept moist.

A strong dark loam, a gravelly, sandy, or clayey soil, but one not
retentive of moisture, seems that best suited for its successful
culture.

It does not thrive well near the sea, nor in the higher mountains, the
spray of the sea and the cold being found injurious. The plants at
first require the shade of other trees, such as the mango, coco-nut,
&c. Although generally a hardy plant, it suffers from excessive
drought. They should be planted about twenty feet apart. In its native
country the tree begins to yield fruit in the sixth year, but a crop
can seldom be looked for in other quarters under eight years. It is
very long lived, sometimes attaining the age of 130 years.

There appears, according to Mr. Crawfurd, to be five varieties of the
clove, viz.--the ordinary cultivated clove; a kind called the female
clove by the natives, which has a pale stem; the kiri or loory clove;
the royal clove, which is very scarce, and the wild clove. The three
first are equally valuable as spices, the female clove being
considered fittest for the distillation of essential oil. The wild
clove, having scarcely any aromatic flavor, is valueless.

The produce which may be expected from the tree seems to be uncertain;
it may, however, be averaged at five or six pounds. A clove tree, well
weeded and taken care of, will produce from five to twenty pounds. On
the other hand, a tree that is neglected will not give above two or
three pounds. At intervals of from three to six years they usually
produce one extraordinary crop, but then a year now and then
intervenes, when they yield none at all; in others they will afford a
double harvest.

The clove tree was originally confined to the five principal Molucca
islands, and chiefly to Machean. From these it was conveyed to
Amboyna, a very short time only before the arrival of the Portuguese.
By them the cultivation was strictly restricted to Amboyna, every
effort being made to extirpate the plant elsewhere.

It has now, however, spread to Java, Singapore, and the Straits'
Settlements, Ceylon, the Mauritius and Seychelles, Bourbon, Zanzibar,
Cayenne, Dominica, Martinique, St. Kitts, St. Vincent, and Trinidad.

Cloves contain a volatile oil, associated with resinous, gummy, and
astringent matter, which is yielded in larger proportion than by any
other plant. Neuman obtained by distillation two ounces and two
drachms from sixteen ounces of cloves. On an average cloves yield from
17 to 22 per cent. of oil, including the heavy and light oils. The oil
is aromatic and acrid, and has been used as a condiment and a
stimulant carminative. It is also extensively used by distillers and
soap makers.

It is said that the clove does not thrive well on the soil of Java,
the plantations of which trial had been made not having succeeded to
the extent expected, although they were directed by skilled persons
from Amboyna; the places they made choice of did not differ materially
as to soil and climate from those of the Moluccas.

M. Teysman, Director of the Botanical Gardens at Batavia, seems to
have bestowed much attention on the subject. The exports however from
the island have been considerable. In 1830, there were 803 piculs
shipped; in 1835, 4,566; in 1839, 2,334; in 1843, 2,027 piculs of 133
lbs.

M. Buee, who introduced the culture of the clove in the island of
Dominica, about 1789, thus describes the results of his experience,
which may be useful to other experimental cultivators. He obtained a
few plants from Cayenne, and raised 1,600 trees from seed, which, in a
year from the first sowing, were transplanted. The seeds were sown at
about six inches apart from each other, in beds; over these beds small
frames were erected about three feet from the ground, and plantain
leaves were spread on the top, in order to shelter the young plants
from the sun. The leaves were allowed gradually to decay, and at the
end of nine months the young plants, which by that time were strong,
were permitted to receive the benefit of the sun; but if not protected
from it when very young, they were found to droop and die.

When transplanted, the trees were placed at sixteen feet apart from
each other. They grew very luxuriantly, and at the end of fifteen
months after their removal, attained the height of from three to four
feet. The ground wherein they were planted had been a coffee
plantation during forty years. The coffee trees had decayed, and an
attempt had been made to replace them; but they refused to grow;
whereas the clove plants flourished as if on congenial soil, and a
crop was gathered on some of them when they were not more than six
years old, which period is two or three years earlier than the usual
time for gathering.

The cloves sent from St. Vincent to England in 1800, were obtained
from trees eight feet high, having a stem only two inches in diameter.
Trial was made in that island of the relative growth of the plant on
different soils; it grew sickly on land which was not manured, but on
land which had received this preparation it flourished.

In Singapore, about ten years ago, there were then about 15,000 clove
trees planted out, a few of which only had come in bearing. If these
plantations had proved equally productive with those of the sister
settlement of Pinang, it would have been able to export 60,000 lbs. of
cloves, its own produce; but this expectation, it will be seen, has
not been realised. In the season of 1841-42, there was 1000 piculs of
cloves shipped from Pinang, but none were exported in the two previous
years.

The quantity of land under cultivation with cloves there, in 1843, was
463 orlongs in Prince of Wales Island, and 517 in Province Wellesley.
The number of trees planted out in the former island was 72,779; in
the latter province 7,639. There were in the island 25,161 plants in
nursery.

The trees in bearing were--In Prince of Wales Island, 28,739; not
bearing, 44,040; produce in 1843, 87 piculs, 50 catties; gross value,
3,399 dollars; estimated produce of cloves for 1844, 469 piculs. In
Province Wellesley--Trees in bearing, 1,073; not bearing, 6,566;
produce in 1843, 1 picul, 13 catties; gross value 45 dollars.

The export of cloves from Pinang was, in 1849, 24,000 lbs.; in 1850,
52,400; in 1851, 27,866; in 1852, 45,087.

From tabular statements drawn up in 1844, by Mr. F.S. Brown, Chairman
of the Pinang Chamber of Commerce, it appears that there were, in
1843, in that island and Province Wellesley adjoining, 96 clove
plantations, containing 80,418 clove trees; besides many young trees
in nurseries ready to be planted out. The produce of cloves there, in
1842, was 11,813 lbs., and this was a very short crop, it having that
year proved a complete failure; the average crop for some years
previous had been 46,666 lbs. Pinang only began to export this spice
in 1832. Of the clove trees in Pinang there were then only 29,812 in
bearing, leaving 75,767 in that settlement alone to come to maturity;
estimated to yield about 300,000 lbs.

No success has attended repeated trials of cloves in Singapore. Until
the trees reach the age of bearing, they grow and look extremely well;
but any expectation of a crop that may have been raised by their
hitherto fine condition, ends in disappointment, for just then the
trees assume the appearance of sudden blight, as if
lightning-stricken, and then die. 125 clove plants and 350 seedlings
were sent to Singapore from Bencoolen, by Sir T. Raffles, in the close
of 1819; but although every care was paid them--while the nutmegs
which accompanied them throve amazingly well--little or no progress
has been made with clove culture. Two or three hundred-weight were
shipped in 1845, but since then hardly any mention is made of the
spice.

In a petition presented by the spice planters of Pinang and Province
Wellesley, to the authorities at home, in 1844, praying that the duty
on British Colonial nutmegs, mace, and cloves might be reduced to 1s.
9d., 1s. 3d., and 3d. respectively, on importation into England, in
order to compete with foreign produce, it was stated that a few years
hence Prince of Wales Island might be expected to produce 600,000 lbs.
of nutmegs, 200,000 lbs. of mace, and 300,000 lbs. of cloves; whilst
Singapore, if equally successful in the culture of the same, would
yield yearly 137,000 lbs. of nutmegs, 45,000 lbs. of mace, and 60,000
lbs. of cloves. In short, the planters needed only encouragement to
produce in the course of a few years a full supply of those valuable
spices for the whole consumption of Great Britain.

Dr. Ruschenberger, who visited Zanzibar in 1835, thus speaks of the
clove plantations there:--"As far as the eye could reach over a
beautifully undulated land, nothing was to be seen but clove trees of
different ages, varying in height from five to twenty feet. The form
of the tree is conical, the branches grow at nearly right angles with
the trunk, and they begin to shoot a few inches above the ground. The
plantation contains nearly four thousand trees, and each tree yields
on an average six pounds of cloves a year; they are carefully picked
by hand, and then dried in the shade; we saw numbers of slaves
standing on ladders gathering the spice, while others were at work
clearing the ground of dead leaves. The whole is in the finest order,
presenting a picture of industry and of admirable neatness and beauty.
They were introduced into Zanzibar in 1818, from Mauritius, and are
found to thrive so well that almost everybody in the island is now
clearing away the cocoa nut to make way for them. The clove bears in
five or six years from the seed; of course time enough has not yet
elapsed for the value and quantity of Zanzibar cloves to be generally
known; they are worth, however, in the Bombay market, about 30s. the
Surat maund of 391/4 lbs.; the price for Molucca cloves in the Eastern
market is from 28 to 30 dollars per picul of 133 lbs.; for those of
Mauritius, 20 to 24 dollars per picul."

The average annual consumption of cloves in the United Kingdom, in the
four years ending 1841, was 49,000 lbs. The largest quantity of cloves
imported during the past twenty-five years was 1,041,171 lbs., in
1847. The quantities imported and entered for home consumption in the
last five years have been as follows:--

Imports. Home consumption.
lbs. lbs.
1848 117,433 126,691
1849 274,713 133,713
1850 749,646 159,934
1851 253,439 138,132
1852 313,949 175,287

In 1848 we received 60,000 lbs. of cloves from British India.

THE NUTMEG.

_Myristica moschata_, _M. officinalis_, or _aromatica_.--This tree is
of a larger growth than the clove, attaining a height of thirty feet,
and has its leaves broader in proportion to their length; the upper
surface of these is of a bright green, the under of a greyish color.
It is a dioecious plant, having male or barren pale yellow flowers upon
one tree, and female or fertile flowers upon another. The fruit is
drupaceous, and opens by two valves when ripe, displaying the
beautiful reticulated scarlet arillus, which constitutes mace. Within
this is a hard, dark brown, and glossy shell, covering the kernel,
which is the nutmeg of the shops.

The kernels of _M. tomentosa_ are also used as aromatics, under the
name of wild or male nutmegs.

Lindley describes two other species, _M. fatua_, a native of Surinam,
with greenish white flowers, and _M. sebifera_ or _Virola sebifera_, a
native of Guiana, with yellowish green flowers.

By expression, nutmegs are made to yield a concrete oil, called
_Adeps Myristicae_, or sometimes erroneously oil of mace. A volatile
oil is also procured by distillation. Nutmegs and mace are used
medicinally as aromatic stimulants and condiments. In large doses they
have a narcotic effect. The fleshy part of the fruit is used as a
preserve.

Dr. Oxley has given such an admirable account of the nutmeg and its
cultivation, as the result of 20 years experience in Singapore, that I
shall draw largely from his valuable paper, which is contained in the
second volume of "The Journal of the Indian Archipelago," page 641.

The nutmeg tree, like many of its class, has a strong tendency to
become monoecious, and planters in general are well pleased at this
habit, thinking they secure a double advantage by having the male and
female flowers on the same plant. This is, however, delusive, and
being against the order of nature, the produce of such trees is
invariably inferior, showing itself in the production of double nuts
and other deformities. It is best, therefore, to have only female
trees, with a due proportion of males.

The female flowers, which are merely composed of a tripid calyx and no
corolla, when produced by a tree in full vigor are perfectly
urceolate, slightly tinged with green at the base, and well filled by
the ovary, whereas the female flowers of weakly trees are entirely
yellow, imperfectly urceolate, and approach more to the staminiferous
flowers of the male.

The shape of the fruit varies considerably, being spherical, oblong,
and egg-shaped, but the nearer they approach sphericity of figure, the
more highly are they prized.

There is also a great variety in the foliage of different trees, from
elliptic, oblong and ovate, to almost purely lanceolate-shaped leaves.
This difference seems to indicate in some measure the character of the
produce; trees with large oblong leaves appearing to have the largest
and most spherical fruit, and those with small lanceolate leaves being
in general more prolific bearers, but of inferior quality.

Whilst its congener the clove has been spread over Asia, Africa, and
the West Indies, the nutmeg refuses to flourish out of the Malayan
Archipelago, except as an exotic, all attempts to introduce it largely
into other tropical countries having decidedly failed. The island of
Ternate, which is in about the same latitude as Singapore, is said to
have been the spot where it was truly indigenous, but no doubt the
tree is to be found on most of the Moluccas. At present the place of
its origin is unproductive of the spice, having been robbed of its
rich heritage by the policy of the Dutch, who at an early period
removed the plantations to the Banda isles for better surveillance,
where they still remain and flourish. But although care was formerly
taken to extirpate the tree on the Moluccas, the mace-feeding pigeons
have frustrated the machinations of man, and spread it widely through
the Archipelago of islands extending from the Moluccas to New Guinea.
Its circle of growth extends westward as far as Pinang, or Prince of
Wales Island, where, although an exotic, it has been cultivated as a
mercantile speculation with success for many years. Westward of Pinang
there are no plantations, looking at the subject in a mercantile point
of view. The tree is to be found, indeed, in Ceylon, and the West
Coast of India, but to grow it as a speculation out of its indigenous
limits, is as likely to prove successful as the cultivation of apples
and pears in Bengal.

In the Banda Isles, where the tree may be considered as indigenous, no
further attention is paid to its cultivation than setting out the
plants in parks, under the shade of large forest trees, with long
horizontal branches, called "Canari" by the natives. There it attains
a height of 50 feet and upwards, whereas from 20 to 30 feet may be
taken as a fair average of the trees in the Straits' Settlements; but
notwitstanding our pigmy proportions (adds Dr. Oxley), it does not
appear, from, all I could ever learn, that we are relatively behind
the Banda trees, either in quantity or quality of produce, and I am
strongly impressed with the idea that the island of Singapore can
compete with the Banda group on perfectly even terms. Our climate is
quite unexceptionable for the growth of the nutmeg, being neither
exposed to droughts or high winds; and although we may lose by
comparison of soils, we again gain by greater facilities of sending
our products to market, by the facility of obtaining abundant supplies
of manure, and any amount of free and cheap labor.

A nutmeg plantation, well laid out and brought up to perfection, is
one of the most pleasing and agreeable properties that can be
possessed. Yielding returns, more or less daily, throughout the year,
there is increasing interest, besides the usual stimulus to all
agriculturists of a crop time, when his produce increases to double
and quadruple the ordinary routine.

Trees having arrived at fifteen years growth, there is no incertitude
or fear of total failure of crop, only in relative amount of produce,
and this, as will be seen, is greatly in the planter's own power to
command. It is against reason to suppose that a tree in flower and
fruit will not expend itself if left to unaided nature: it must be
supplied with suitable stimuli to make good the waste, therefore he
who wants nuts must not be sparing of manure.

The first requisite for the planter is choice of location. It is true
that the nutmeg tree, aided by manure, will grow in almost any soil
where water does not lodge, but it makes a vast difference in the
degree of success, whether the soil be originally good, or poor and
improved by art. The tree does not thrive in white or sandy soils, but
prefers the deep red and friable soils formed by the decomposition of
granite rocks and tinged with iron, and the deeper the tinge the
better. I am therefore inclined to think, that iron in the soil is
almost necessary for the full development of the plant. If under the
before-mentioned soil there be a rubble of iron-stone at four or five
feet from the surface (a very common formation in Singapore), forming
a natural drainage, the planter has obtained all that he can desire
in the ground, and needs only patience and perseverance to secure
success. The form of the ground ought to be undulating, to permit the
running off of all superfluous water, as there is no one thing more
injurious to the plant than water lodging around its roots, although,
in order to thrive well, it requires an atmosphere of the most humid
sort, and rain almost daily. Besides the form of the ground, situation
is highly desirable, particularly as regards exposure. A spot selected
for a nutmeg plantation cannot be too well sheltered, as high winds
are most destructive to the tree, independently of the loss occasioned
by the blowing off of fruit and flower.

At present there is abundant choice of land in Singapore, the greater
portion of the island being as yet uncultivated, and much answering to
the above description. The land can be purchased from Government at
the rate of from 10s. to 20s. per acre in perpetuity. I would advise
the man who wishes to establish a plantation, to select the virgin
forest, and of all things let him avoid deserted gambier plantations,
the soil of which is completely exhausted, the Chinese taking good
care never to leave a spot until they have taken all they can out of
it. A cleared spot has a great attraction for the inexperienced, and
it is not easy to convince a man that it is less expensive to attack
the primitive forest, than to attempt to clear an old gambier
plantation, overrun with lalang grass; but the cutting down and
burning of large forest trees is far less expensive than the
extirpation of the lalang, and as the Chinese leave all the stumps of
the large trees in the ground, it is almost more difficult to remove
them in this state than when you have the powerful lever of the trunk
to aid you in tearing up the roots, setting aside the paramount
advantage that, in the one case you possess a fresh and fertile soil,
in the other an effete and barren one.