The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-12-04
. NUTMEGS.
ERE AND HOW THEY ARE
1 RAISED AND PREPARED.
Native of the East India Islands
= Cultivated Now in Other Places
Nutmeg Growing Very
Profitable Business.

Nutmegs grow on small trees resem-
bling pear trees, cut down to about
twenty feet in height, said W. D. Ben
nett before the Grocers' Ass oclatlon OF
Boston. The flowers are very much
like those of the lily of the valley; they
are pale yellow and very fragrant. The
leaves stand alternately on short foot
stalks; are oblong, pointed, entire
bright green and somewhat glossy on
their upper surface, whitish beneath and
of an aromatic taste. The fruit, which
appears on the tree mingled with the
flowers, is round or oval, of the size of
small peach, smooth, at first pale green,
but yellow when ripe, and marked with
longitudinal furrow.
; The external covering, which is at
first thick and feshy, and abounds in an
austere astringent juice, afterward be-
comes dry and leathery, and, separating
into two valves from the apex, discloses
q scarlet net-like membrane commonly
called mace, closely investing a thin
brown shining shell, which contains the
kernel or nutmeg. The nutmeg tree IS
native of the Moluccas and other
,neighboring islands, and abounds espe-
icially in that small cluster distinguished
'by the name of Banda, whence the chief
;supplies of nutmegs were long derived.
! But the plant is now cultivated in
'Sumatra, Java, Singapore, Penang,
Ceylon and other parts of the East Indies,
and has been introduced into the Isles OF
&France, Bourbon, Cayenne and several
of the West India islands. Ahne tree in
tJamaica has over four thousand nutmegs
on it yearly. The tree begins to bear
when ten years old, and goes on improv-
ing for a hundred years. The fruit is
gathered two or three times a year.
Three sorts of nutmegs are distinguished
namely, the male or barren, the royal
and the queen, the last of which is small
and round.
The nutmeg is propagated from fresh
seeds (nutmeg), and these vary in size and
shape, just as apples and pears do when
raised from seeds. There can hardly be
more profitable crop than the nutmeg at
present prices. The annual yield of a
good tree of sixteen years. growth Is
about ten pounds, covering about 500
square feet surface, which, at an average
of forty cents per pound, gives value
produce per acre per annum of over $500,
including mace.
The fruit of the nutmeg takes nine
months to mature, and one hundred
pounds of nutmeg produce one pound of
mace. A good nutmeg should be large,
round and heavy, of drab or light-brown
color and finely marbled in the cross
section. Its virtues are extracted by al
cohol and ether. Eighteen ounces of
good sound nutmeg will yield four
ounces of oil. The volatile oil is OBJ
tained by distillation with water.
| By pressure with heat an oily matter is
procured from the kernels, which be.
comes solid on cooling, and is commonly,
though enormously, called mace. Nut
megs have been punctured and boiled in
order to extract their essential oil, and
the orifce afterward closed SO carefully
is not to be discoverable unless by break
ing the kernel. The fraud may be de-
tected by their lightness. The Dutch
were formerly said to heat them in a
stove IN order to deprive them of the
power of terminating, and thus prevent
the propagation of the tree.
The Dutch used to have all the nutmeg
trade, as they owned the Banda Islands
and conquered the other traders and de-
stroyed the trees to keep the price up.
They once burned over three piles of
nutmeg, each of which was as large as q
church. Nature did not sympathize with
such meanness. The nutmeg pigeon,
found in all India Islands, did for the
world what the Dutch had determined
should not be done-carried these nuts,
which are their food, into all the sur
rounding countries, trees grew again, and
the world had the benefit.
The practice of lining nutmegs has
been sadly abused; it is used principally
for making slightly and marketable those
nutrnegs which at one time would have
been altogether rejected. The long or
wild nutmeg is distinguished from that
Just described by its greater length, the
absence of the dark-brown veins, and its
comparative feeble odor and disagreeable
taste. 1t has heen called male, wild or
. long nutmeg, the other being designated
as the female, or cultivated nutmeg.
The concrete or expressed oil of nut
meg, commonly called oil of mace, is
obtained by bruising nutmegs, exposing
them in bag to steam and then CON-
pressing them slightly between heated
plates. A liquid oil flows out which be-
comes solid when it cools. Nutmegs are
nh6 to yield from ten to twelve per cent.
bf this oil. The best is imported from
the East Indies in stout jars; it is solid,
soft, unctuous to the touch, or yellow
ish, or orange yellow color, more or less
mottled, with the odor and taste of nut
meg.
An artificial preparation is sometimes
made from genuine oil; it is made by
mixing fatty matters, such as suet, palm
oil, wax, etc., adding some time coloring
substance and giving favor to the mix
ture BY the volatile oil. Nutmeg unites
with the medicinal properties of the ordi-
nary aromatics considerable narcotic
power. In the quantity of two Or three
drachms it has been known to produce
stupor and delirium; and dangerous, if
not fatal, consequences are said to have
followed its use in India.
tt is employed to cover the taste or