The clove tree is not subject to any fungoid disease, but it suffers from a caterpillar which often strips the leaves in dry weather, but the tree will soon recover after the rain sets in. The white ant also attacks the root. No remedy is undertaken for either of these pests. A worm also insinuates itself into the wood and thousands of trees sometimes perish from its work. Harvesting should begin as soon as the fruit is at the proper stage and should be rushed with as much haste as is possible, or much of the crop may be lost by over-ripening. As all buds do not mature at one time, it takes about three weeks to complete the harvest. Cloths are first spread on the ground beneath the tree. The fruit must be picked mostly by hand. Although the twigs are easily broken, the harvesting is very tedious. Four-sided ladders or movable stages are used for the lower limbs and seed poles for beating the fruit from the upper branches, which cannot be reached from the ladders. The limbs of the tree are so brittle that great care must be taken not to break them, lest the crop for the next year be injured. Boys and girls from ten to fourteen years old, are the best help for gathering the fruit. The clove and clove stems are both gathered at the same time, and are dried on mats to prevent fermentation. Those which fall from the tree are dried in the sunshine. They have a shriveled appearance, dull color, little essential oil, and are of inferior value. The flowers are next dried, when they assume the brown color of the clove. The finest cloves are dark-brown with a full, perfect head free from moisture. The inferior are smaller and poorer in essential oil. The drying process is usually by simple exposure to the sun for several days on mats, but in some places the flowers are smoked on hurdles covered with matting near a slow fire. In a few cases they have been scalded in hot water before smoking. After the drying process, they are ready for packing, if they are brittle or readily break between the fingers. [Illustration: HARVESTING CLOVES]