The English mustard seed is the best in the world. Of this class 4,995,800 lbs. of seed and 1,307,202 lbs. of flour were imported during the year 1908. Mustard seed and flour from Italy is known as Trieste. In the Lompoe valley, California, some 2,500 acres are under mustard cultivation, and a small quantity is also grown in Kentucky. The uses of mustard are too well known to need recapitulation. D. S. F. means double superfine. NUTMEG AND MACE Where the Nutmeg Tree Grows--Yield of Nuts and Mace and How Prepared for the Market--Uses in Commerce The nutmeg tree, known to botanists as Myristica frangrans (sweet smelling) is a native of the Malay archipelago. The tree, which in the Banda isles grows to the height of 50 to 60 ft., and in the Straits to 30 to 40 ft., resembles the pear tree in the shape of its leaves and fruit. Its flowers are like those of the lily of the valley in form and size, but are pale yellow and exceedingly fragrant. There are male and female flowers, the nutmegs being obtained from the latter. It is only when the tree is about 6 or 8 years old that the female tree can be distinguished from the male, and of the latter only a few are allowed to remain for fertilizing purposes, the rest being cut down. The nutmeg tree continues to yield from 70 to 80 years after reaching maturity (8 years). Each tree on an average will produce 10 lbs. of nutmegs and 1½ lbs. of mace annually. The fruit is yellowish, edible drupe, about the size of a peach; it splits into halves when at maturity--about 9 months from the time of blossoming--exposing a single seed with a thin, hard shell, surrounded by a fibrous substance of a crimson color, which, when dried and shelled becomes the nutmeg. The young drupes, when young and tender, are often preserved like jam and are considered the most aromatic and delicious of conserves. Altho the nutmeg tree has ripe fruit upon it at all seasons, there are three principal periods of harvesting, viz: July, when the fruit is most abundant, though it yields thin mace; November, when the mace is thicker, though the nutmegs are smaller, and March, when both mace and nutmegs reach their greatest perfection--but as this season is dry the production is not great. [Illustration]