Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1884 — How Nutmegs Grow. [ARTICLE]

How Nutmegs Grow.

This spice, so much used in every family, is indigenous to the Moluccas, reaching its greatest perfection in Ambovna. This island belongs to the Dutch, who do not permit the cultiva- I tion of the nutmeg in the other islands : under their control. The nutmeg tree is twenty-five or thirty feet high when fully grown, with foliage of a rich dark j green, and very plentiful. It reaches maturity, or full productiveness, at the fifteenth year from planting. From the blossom to the ripening of the fruit takes about seven months, but as the tree is a perennial bearer, there are always blossoms, greeD fruit and ripe on the tree. The yield is most plentiful in the last four months of the year.. The average yield per annum of a healthy tree is five pounds of nutmegs and one and one fourth pounds of mace. A plantation of 1,000 trees requires the labor of coolies, fifty oxen, and two plows for cultivation and harvesting. The fruit is gathered by means of a hook attached to a long pole. It is shaped like a pear, about jthe size of a peach, and has a delicate “bloom.”. The nut has three coverings; the outside one is a thick, fleshy husk, having a strong flavor of nutmeg. This husk, preserved in sirup when young, is a favorite sweetmeat in the East Indies. Under this husk is the bright red mace, which is carefully flattened by hand and dried on mats in the sun. It loses its rich scarlet and becomes a dull orange color, and requires to be kept perfectly dry to preserve its flavor. After the mace is removed from the fruit, £he nuts, in their brown shells, are placed on hurdles over a slow fire, which is kept constantly burning under them for two months. The nuts then rattle in the shells, which are cracked with a wooden mallet, the sound nuts selected and packed in wooden cases, and sprinkled over with dry, sifted lime, and are then ready for market. The best nutmegs are dense, emit oil when pricked with a pin, and can always be known by their heavy weight. Poor ones are light and easily known.