These parks contain 319,804 bearing trees, which produce annually about 4,000 piculs of 139½ pounds each of nutmegs, and 1,000 pounds of mace. This yield gives about one and one-half catties of 139 pounds each of spice to each tree per annum. But much of the fruit is lost on account of the height of the trees, and the inaccessible places in which many of the nuts fall. Many drop into the streams and float away, and many are lost by being worm-eaten, also many are eaten by field rats. The entire group of Banda Islands is comprised within a space seven miles long and three miles wide; in fact, these are the dimensions of the Island of Lantor itself. The islands are of a light volcanic soil, and the great moisture, due to the numerous rains, makes them most favorable for nutmeg raising, and seems almost perfectly to suit the requirements of the tree. The only cultivation required is to keep the grass and weeds and underbrush cut, no manuring or artificial stimulus being needed. Almost the entire surface of the islands is planted with nutmeg trees. The labor is performed by Dutch convicts, who are banished to these islands, there being no native population. Plants which spring up spontaneously from the seed are taken up and transplanted by simply heeling in the ground of the required vacancy. In some places clumps of trees are found growing not more than ten to twelve feet apart under the shade of the canarium commune. In fact, the nutmeg is more collected than cultivated in the Banda Islands. The trees grow from fifty to sixty feet high, while those of the Straits are but a shrub in comparison, and in other countries they grow only from twenty to forty feet high, and need much manuring and very careful cultivation. It would appear as if the trees were overshaded in the Straits, and yet they require much shade to protect them from the strong winds which prevail there.