The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1878-08-21
Cl0Ies.

LILO ClOfO NSV 'SANAb
spread family Of the myrtlec, the small,
evergreen leaves resembling those OF tue
laufel, the flowers growing in punches
at the extremity IF she branches. When
they first appear, which ID at the begin
ming of the rainy season, they are iii The
form Of elongated, greenish buds, from
the extremity Of which the corolla il
expanded, which is Of q delicate peach
blossom color. The corolla having fallsr
off, the calyx turns yellow, and then red.
when it is beaten from the tree and
dried. If the fruit be allowed to remain
longer on the tree, the fower-buds OF
cloves gradually swell, the embryo seed
enlarges, and the pungent properties Of
the Glove are in great part dissipated,
hence the cloves of commerce are the
unexpanded fower.buds, The whole
tree is highly aromatic, and the foot
stalks of the leaves have nearly the
same pungent quality as the flower
buds.
Glove trees have a noble height and q
pyramidal head, while the beauty OF
their form, the luxuriance Of their ever
green foliage, aud, above all, the spicy
fragrance with which they perfume the
air, adds a wonderful beauty to their
growth in tbs clear, light atmosphere OF
the Eastern Archipelago. This elegant
tree grows spontaneously in the Moluc.
cas-, and was from thence carried to
Mauritius and Bourbon, French Guiana
and the West Indies. Gloves, as well
as nutmegs and other costly productions
of the remotest. isles of the Indian
Ocean, we're known in Europe for CEN
turtles before the countries where they
grow had been heard of. Arabian naV1-
gators brought them to Egypt, where
they were purchased by the Venetans,
and sold at an enormous profit to the
nations of the West. But the discovery
by the Portuguese Of the new maritime
road to the East Indies, round the Cape
of Good Hope, in 1893, and the subjec-
ton of the Moluccas in 1911, gave them
a monopoly of the whole spice trade,
which, however, they were soon obliged
to yield to their stronger rivals, the
Dutch, who in the seventeenth century,
by dint of enterprise and courage made
themselves masters Of the Indian Ocean.
The fower-buds or cloves are arranged
on the terminal flower stalks they are
either gathered by hand or obtained by
beating with bundles of reeds, in which
case cloths arc spread beneath the trees
to catch them. After being gathered,
the cloves are prepared for shipment by
smoking them in hurdles covered with
mating, heal a slow wood fire, togive
them a brown color, after which they
are further dried in the sun. They may
then be cut off from the flower branches,
and will be found to be purple colored
within, and fit to be packed in bales for
the market. In some places they are
scalded in hot water previous to being
smoked, but it is not q very general
practice. By repeated distillation, gen.
uine cloves will produce from seventeen
to twenty-five per centssof oil. Glove
stalks, although very inferior, contain
some of the active properties Of cloves,
and are sometimes ground tpand nixed
with the powder of genuine cloves. The
color of good cloves should be o dark
brown, almost approaching the blHck,,
and when handled should leave an oily
moisture upon the fingers. Good cloves
are sometimes adulterated by mixing
them with those from which oil hasbeen
drawn, but these latter are WEAKER than
the rest and of a paler color. Cloves
readily imbibe moisture, whereby their
weight becomes greatly increased, a fact
of which dishonest dealers have not
failed to avail themselves.
Gloves are produced in the islands OF
Zanzibar and Pemba, where the tree
was first introduced about 1880. The
total average quantity produced is about
7, 900, 900 pounds, valued at 1926, 600.
In 1863 the crop was an entire failure.
In the following year it was above the
Some four or five years since
u hurricane devastated Zanzibar, de-
stroying a arge proportion of the Glove
trees on the island. In 1874 there were
900, 900 Glove trees in Java, of which
161, $50 were in bearing. Great Britain
annually imports an average OF about
], 900, 900 pounds Of cloves. France,
Germany and the United States are also
large importers and consumers OF this
spice. Owing to the increased production
prices have fallen materially during the
past twenty-five years. In 1929 cloves
were sold in England ct $50 per pound.
1719 at So per pound. The average price
in Holland, previous to the war OF the
French revolution, was about 50 per
pound, being about $500 per cent. ad-
vance on the real cost of the commodity
in the place of its growth. Modern COM
MERGE and improved facilities Of culture
and transportation enable the importer
of cloves into this country to sell them
now at from thirty to forty cents per
por,nd