Cloves are now exported in large amounts from Zanzibar and its
neighboring island Pemba, twenty miles distant. They are cultivated
there by all classes, from the Sultan to the humblest of his subjects.
Zanzibar cloves, being very dry, do not lose much in weight by drying
and may be stored for some time and will not mold, but the Pemba
production arrives in a damp condition and must be sold or milled at
once to save loss from shortage. The Zanzibar cloves are larger than the
Pemba variety and have a reddish head by which they may be known, while
the dry Pemba cloves, by reason of the greater amount of moisture they
contain, have a darker color. The Zanzibar cloves, being well
cultivated, are very fine, but the Pemba, having more rains, have an
advantage over the Zanzibar in quantity, but they are lacking in
quality. Zanzibar Island is fifty miles long by twenty miles wide, and
alone produces 7,000,000 pounds of cloves annually, and Pemba a much
larger quantity. Pemba is divided into two districts, Weti in the north
and Chaki in the south. The two islands produce 90 per cent. of all the
cloves raised in the world.
Whole cloves have a great affinity for water. Some exporters have taken
advantage of the fact by attempting to place their sacks in a position
aboard vessels where they may imbibe water and increase their weight,
much to the detriment of the clove.
Cloves in their natural state lose from 50 to 60 per cent. in drying.
One frasila of thirty-five pounds of freshly gathered cloves is equal to
but half a frasila when dried. The difference in shortage between cloves
at Zanzibar and on their arrival in Europe is about 8 per cent. Only
about two-thirds of a clove garden is depended on for bearing, one-third
being allowed for barren young trees. The tree in its native islands
begins to bear when from four to five years old and is at its prime at
twelve years; but in Amboina and other Molucca islands, Haruka, Saparua,
and Naesalaut, it does not bear much until it is from ten to twelve
years old, and it requires much more attention.
The tree yields but one crop each year, which, on an average, is about
seven pounds. A good healthy orchard at maturity produces about 375
pounds to the acre, less one-third for young trees, or about 300 pounds.
The yield is often fifteen to twenty pounds to a tree, and we have
records of trees which bore as high as seventy-five pounds at the age of
150 years. The ordinary life of a tree is from twenty to thirty years,
though it varies much in different localities. When the clove tree
becomes old and worthless for bearing it will have a ragged appearance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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