Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1874 — How A Nutmegs Grow. [ARTICLE]

How A Nutmegs Grow.

An old whaler tells,, in the American Grocer , all about nutmegs. This spice, so much used in every family, is indigenous to the Moluccas, reaching its greatest perfection in Amboyna. This island belongs to the Dutch, who do not permit the cultivation 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 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, green 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 seven 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 the 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 syrup 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, aud requires to be kept perfectly dry to preserve its flavor. After the mace is removed from the fruit, the 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.