Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1884 — Cloves. [ARTICLE]

Cloves.

If you will look on the map of Oceanica, iu the division of Malaysia, you will find a group of tiny islands nestled in between Celebes and Papua, known as the Molucca or Spice Islands, from the great quantity of cloves, nutmegs and mace obtained from them. Although they look so small, they are of great value on acconnt of the spice trees. | V The Portuguese and Spaniards both found them about the year 1521; bnt Antonio de Brito, a Portuguese navigator, took possession of them in the name of bis King, and that nation held them until the Dutch (assisted by the natives) drove them ont in the first part of the seventeenth century and took possession of tliern themselves. This they have hold until the present time, with the exception of a brief period in 1796, when the English conquered them from the ’ Dutch, but soon restored them. The clove tree was found on only five islands in its native state, arftt on the Island of Amboyna, where the natives had begun to cultivate it. As soon as the Dutch obtained possession began to destroy all the clove trees except on the Island of Amboyna, in order to make the spice scarce, and so increase the price. Every year, until 1824, an expedition of soldiers and laborers was sent from Holland to the Moluccas with orders to destroy every clove tree there except those on Amboyna. During the short time the English held possession of the islands, they carried clove-trees to Bonrbon and Mauritius. In 1830 they were planted on the islands of Pemba and Zanzibar, and from the latter island about 7,000,000 pounds are exported every year; theqp are worth over $400,000. They are also raised in Sumatra, Malacca, Cayenne, and Brazilf but the best still come from Amboyna. The clove-tree is from fifteen to forty feet high. It has a perfectly straight trunk, covered with a smooth, olivecolored bark. From where the branched beg(n, it has the form of a pyramids the leaves are a dark green, and very glossy; the flowers grow in dusters, aud are of a reddish hue; the fruit is about the size and shape of an olive, perhaps not quite as large, and when ripe is dark red. The part that we use as spice is the flower-buds, which are gathered just before they open, They are dried by the smoke of wood fires, or by being exposed to the rays-of the sun. By drying they are changed from red to a deep brown. They look po mnch like a nail with a round head that both the Portuguese and Spaniards gave them a name which meant nail iitheir language, and which has since become onr English word, clove. The French called them fragrant-nail, on account of their delicious odor. All parts of the tree are fragrant,—bark, leaves, flowers, and fruit. Cloves are used in cooking, in medicine, or for embalming or preserving bodies from decay. Au oil is also obtained from them, which is much used in perfumery.