Spices

Index

. 447

ILLUSTRATIONS

Sorting Spices .......

PAGE

. Frontispiece

Vanilla Flower .......

Vanilla Flowers .......

Vanilla Fertilisation ......

Nutmeg Tree .......

Nutmeg Flowers .......

Branch of Clove with Clove ripe for gathering

. 156

Clove Tree . . . . . .

. 157

Clove Tree attacked bt Gephalevrvs .

. 171

Black Pepper .......

. 240

Pepper in Borneo ......

. 245

Pepper from Borneo ......

. 247

Turmeric ........

. 423

IX

Chapter I

The history of the cultivation and use of spices is perhaps the most romantic story of any vegetable product. From the earliest known eras of civilisation spices were eagerly sought in all parts of the world. The earliest explorers in their search after gold paid almost as much attention to drugs and spices, and it was the pursuit of these as much as anything which led to the first rounding of the Cape of Good Hope, and the colonisation of the East Indies. Later, the greed of the Dutch in maintaining the monopoly of the Eastern spice- trade led to the founding of the Straits Settlement colony, while the pepper gardens of southern India, the vanilla of Mauritius and the Seychelles, the cinnamon and cardamoms of Ceylon all played important parts in the opening up of these countries to Western civilisation and Western trade.

It must be noticed that the greater part of the spices that have been valued by man are derived from the Asiatic tropics, while the other quarters of the globe have produced comparatively few. Thus we have the following distribution.

From Asia are derived pepper, cardamoms, cinnamon (natives of southern India and Ceylon), nutmegs, and mace; cloves, clove-bark, turmeric, ginger, greater galangal, from the Malay Archipelago ; cassia-bark and lesser galangal from China. Africa gave us grains of Paradise, Madagascar Ravensara aromatica, while the

B

CHAP.

American tropics gave us only vanilla, capsicums, and pimento.

The colder climates of northern Europe and Asia produced but few — coriander, cumin, caraway seed, and mustard and calamus root.

Of the East Asiatic tropical spices most are not really known in the wild state, and it is in many cases actually doubtful as to where was their place of origin.

The appreciation of spices as flavouring for the simple rice food of the oriental, extending over unknown ages, has perhaps caused the oriental to cultivate forms of the aromatic trees and shrubs they met with in the forests into the forms we now know them in, but it must be admitted that in most cases the well-known nutmegs, cloves, ginger, and others do not bear any close resemblance botanically to anything we have since met with in the forests. The cause of this disappearance of the original plant may be perhaps due to the removal to or enclosure in gardens of the plant when found in a wild state. In the case of trees of which the fruit is valuable, the native, on finding it in the forest, may form a garden round them, or he may transfer all the seedlings he can find to his garden, or by steadily collecting the crop of seed annually, may practically in time exterminate the plant in the forest, while later selections of the most productive and valuable forms may modify the fruit so much that we can hardly now recognise it.

Spices can be arranged according to the parts of the plant which form the commercial product. Thus in cloves it is the flower bud which is used ; in nutmegs, vanilla, capsicums, pepper, it is the fruit ; ginger and turmeric the underground stems, cinnamon and cassia the bark. This is perhaps the most convenient way of sorting them, and I have adopted it.

Cultivations in general can be classified into groups in the following way : —

1. Plantation cultivations, which are generally effected on a large scale, and belong to the class of

I permanent crops, lasting for a number of years. Such are nutmegs, cloves, cardamoms, cinnamon, vanilla.

2. Garden crops, which are done on a smaller scale, are less permanent and often cultivated as a subsidiary crop to other permanent crops. Such are ginger, capsicums, pepper.

3. Field crops, which are done on a large scale as a temporary crop, and often grown in rotation with other field crops. Such are coriander and cumin.

A certain number of commercial spices are hardly cultivated at all, but are derived from wild trees or plants, the demand for them not being greater at present than the forest can supply. Such are Malay cassia-bark and calamus root. Any of them may at any time, however, come into a greater demand, and it would then be necessary to develop the cultivation. It is therefore desirable to pay some attention to them, as it is not always easy to predict their future. Thus calamus root is grown all over the East, as well as in many other parts of the world, in small quantities, as a native medicine, and imported occasionally into European markets. Recently, however, a planter in the Malay states distilled the oil of it, and sent some of it with other oils to Europe for examination. It proved to be in great request by certain brewing firms as a beer flavouring, and was highly valued. The demand for this product was quite unknown to cultivators and distillers in the East.

The produce included under the name of spices comprises all aromatic vegetable products which are used in flavouring food and drinks, but almost all have other uses as well, for which they are in great request in commerce. Many are used in perfumery, or in soap-making, such as vanilla, cloves, and pepper, others in the manufacture of incense — cinnamon. A good number are utilised in medicine, either as a flavouring, or for their special therapeutic values — cardamoms, ginger, nutmegs, etc. Turmeric is used in dyeing, especially by natives ; clove oil in microscopy, and

CHAP.

others of the spices in various arts. All these uses add to the commercial demand, and are of considerable importance to the planter.

Of late years there can be no doubt that the use of spice as flavouring by European nations has considerably diminished. In the twelfth and later centuries the use of spice in every household was very large, and was only regulated by their cost. But the last few years have shown a certain amount of falling off in the demand for spiced foods, and the spice-box is not so important a household utensil as it was. Artificial flavourings, too, have made some amount of alteration in the demand. But if profits on spices are not as large as they were in the days when, next to gold, spices were considered most worth risking life and money for, there is still a good profit to be obtained by their cultivation. The trade is still large among European nations, and the demand by orientals, the greatest spice-lovers, is as large as ever it was.

TROPICAL REGIONS

The area included in this work as the area of the tropics lies between latitude 25 N. and 25 S., and

this includes a considerable variation in regions and climates. A great portion is occupied by the tropical rain forest region, where the air is constantly moist and there is practically no dry season. This is the great spice-region, where almost every spice mentioned in this work can be cultivated with success. The rainfall is heavy and constant, that is to say, a little falls every day or two, and at the breaks of the monsoon there are generally some very heavy falls, continuing for a whole day or two with little or no break. The temperature is high, but not so great as a little farther north. In this area, beside the rain forest region, we have regions in which there is a distinct dry period, lasting for some months, and followed by heavy rains. During the dry weather the temperature is very high. Such trees as

I are not adapted especially for this region do not thrive here. Most of the trees of this region are leafless in the dry season, and trees like the nutmeg and clove, which are not deciduous, but evergreen, succumb at the first dry spell. In this region the annual field crop spices — coriander, cumin, chilies — are commonly grown, as well as the rhizomatous ginger and turmeric, which in this climate lose their leaves during the dry spell. Some of the tropical spices, such as capsicums and ginger, have a wider cultivation area than most of the others, and go almost outside the tropical area, but on the whole the areas of successful cultivation are limited.

It is rather remarkable that so large a proportion of the spices of the tropics are successfully grown on islands only, or in close propinquity to the sea. Among these are nutmegs, cloves, vanilla, clove barks, and perhaps we may add cinnamon and cardamoms as island plants.

SOILS

The various soils suited for the different spices are mentioned under their respective headings. There seems to be increasing evidence that with most plants the physical characteristics of the soil are more important than its chemical constituents. Its water capacity, permeability, and capillary conduction or power of absorbing water, are its most important characteristics. Different crops require different degrees of moisture or dryness. Most, however, of the plants described in this work require a greater average moisture in an accessible and utilisable form than the plants of colder climates, as their natural habitat is in the wetter part of the tropics. Plants have a great power of adaptation to surroundings, though at the same time there is a limit to their endurance. In soil where it cannot obtain its food and water in sufficient quantity a plant becomes pale and weak. The leaves show an unmistakable yellow tint instead of the rich green, whether light

CHAP.

or dark, of the normal plant. It makes but little growth, and is liable to attacks of insects and fungi.

It is, in the first place, of the greatest importance to select a suitable soil. Sandy spots, except in the case of cinnamon, water-logged soils, and soils formed almost exclusively of vegetable debris, or impregnated with salts, should be avoided. It is possible in most of these cases to improve the soils, but the cost may be too great to be worth while. In prospecting for a good site for the estate, the ground should be dug to a depth of at least two feet, in order to form an idea of the subsoil, which is often different from the surface layers.

DISEASES

The diseases from which plants suffer are due to insects or fungi. Bacteria, which play the chief part in diseases of animals, seem seldom to be the cause of disease among plants.

The known diseases of each plant are described in each chapter dealing with the species. The careful watching for disease is one of the most important duties of the planter. No attack, however mild, should be overlooked as unimportant. In an outbreak a disease often begins very slowly, a plant here or there dies, and no notice is taken of this. More are attacked, and usually the disease appears in patches about the estate. Too often it is not until a considerable number of plants are dead or dying that the planter takes any steps to stop it. Sometimes the disease assumes a virulent nature, spreading rapidly from each centre of infection, and before the planter has time to fairly combat it, the estate may be ruined. In any case, when it has once reached the virulent stage the expenses of checking it will be great, while earlier action when the disease first showed itself would have cost but a trivial sum.

A yellowing of the leaves of a plant is usually a sign that it is in an unhealthy state. It may be due to starvation from destruction of a portion of the roots, or

I to an insufficient food supply, but it is also occasionally due to excessive exposure to heat and sunlight. The destruction or injury to the roots may be due to an underground fungus or to some insect such as the grub of a cockchafer biting through them ; again, it may be due to their having reached poor soil, or having exhausted most of the accessible nutriment. The yellowing of the leaves is also noticeable in plants growing in water-logged soil.

When a plant is weak from insufficient food it is much more liable to attacks from insects and fungi, and where a plant has been injured by a pest, it is advisable to manure it, so as to give it a fresh start and enable it to resist the attacks of the pest.

In the case of turmeric and ginger, the yellowing of the leaf is a preliminary stage in the death of the leaf, and is one of the signs that the plant is passing into a resting stage. At this time the plant is ready for digging, and the yellowing is therefore a normal condition.

INSECTICIDES

Many different insecticides have been placed on the market by horticultural firms. In most of them the poisonous part consists of nicotine, or some form of arsenic. Nicotine solutions are prepared by soaking common or waste tobacco in water, enough being used to cover the tobacco. When the solution is of the colour of strong tea it is diluted and sprayed or watered over the plants. Usually, in the East at least, tobacco good enough for this purpose can be obtained cheaply.

Arsenites of copper, Paris green and London purple are often used, but I think it is better to avoid them, as they are apt to burn the foliage, and there is a probable risk of poisoning from them.

Kerosene emulsion is one of the best insecticides. It may be made with condensed or sour milk or with soap, the latter being more generally used.

CHAP.

Kerosene and Condensed Milk

Kerosene 2 gallons,

Milk ...... 3 pints.

Water . . . ... .6 pints.

Kerosene and Sour Milk

Kerosene 2 gallons.

Sour milk . . . . .1 gallon.

When used they should be churned up with a stick or by means of a force-pump, to make the emulsion regular and well mixed, when it can be diluted.

Kerosene and Soap Emulsion. — The best way of making this is with soft soap. One quart of soft soap is dissolved in 2 quarts of boiling water. Bemove from the fire and add 1 pint of kerosene and stir briskly. Before using, dilute with an equal quantity of water. This emulsion will keep for a considerable time. Should the soap be too caustic for the foliage, use only half the quantity. Soft soap is not always procurable and hard soap can then be used. The following recipe is recommended by Loder ( Spraying of Plants).

Dissolve \ lb. of hard soap in 2 quarts of water, add 1 pint of kerosene oil and pump the mixture back into itself while hot. Dilute with twice its bulk of water before using.

Hard soap . . . . . J lb.

Kerosene ...... 2 gallons.

Boiling soft -water .... 1 gallon.

Dissolve the soap in the boiling water, then add the kerosene and churn for five or ten minutes. It is essential that the liquids mixed should be as warm as possible. The author himself has been in the habit of heating the mixture after adding the oil, but care has to be taken not to let it catch fire. With experiences of ordinary coolie recklessness, one would not recommend this on an estate worked by coolies.

Tuba root is one of the best insecticides and is the

I one most regularly used by the Chinese, in the Malay Peninsula, for treating their vegetable and other erops.

The plant known as tuba ( Derris elliptica) is a woody climber propagated by cuttings. It will grow in any corner of the garden and soon develops into a fairly large mass of stems, lying on the ground. The roots are pounded up in water and the decoction poured or sprayed over the crop, where it will kill all caterpillars, grasshoppers, and other insects. It is perfectly harmless to any plants. The decoction is poisonous to human beings, but only when taken in large quantities, and risk from it in the case of any of our spice plants is infinitesimal.

The best of all these is the preparation known as Bordeaux mixture. This consists of a mixture of copper sulphate and lime in water. The best formula is : —

No estate should be unprovided with a bag or two of copper sulphate in case of an outbreak of any kind of fungus. I have arrested many outbreaks of different kinds of fungi on roots, stems, and leaves of plants by the use of this excellent mixture.

It is sometimes complained that under certain circumstances it burns the leaves of young plants. I have never seen this occur.

A very complete account of the making and use of Bordeaux mixture was published by Mr. E. S. Salmon in the Journal of the Board of Agriculture, vol. xvi. No. 10. I reprint the following extracts from his article : —

In purchasing copper sulphate, an article of 98 per cent purity should be demanded; substance described as “ agricultural

FUNGICIDES

Copper sulphate (bluestone) Quicklime (in lumps)

Water ....

50 gallons.

4 lb. 4 lb.

CHAP.

Milestone ” or “ agricultural sulphate of copper ” must be avoided, as these are usually adulterated with iron sulphate.

The strength of Bordeaux mixture at present most widely recommended in the United States is 4f lb. of copper sulphate, 4£ lb. of quicklime, 50 gallons (Imperial) of water. This strength is expressed in America by the formula 4:4: 50, since, as Mr. Pickering has lately pointed out, the relative value of the American and Imperial gallon is different, the former weighing 8-345 lb. and the latter 10 lb. As, however, excellent results have followed the use of Bordeaux mixture made of the strength 4:4:50 (Imperial), it would seem advisable, for the present, at any rate, to continue to use this as the “ standard ” mixture.

Dissolve the 4 lb. of copper sulphate in a wooden tub or bucket — iron or tin vessels must not be used. The easiest way to do this is to suspend the material, wrapped in a piece of coarse sacking, in a few gallons of cold water, from a stick placed across the top of a tub, or wooden bucket. If this be done over night, the copper sulphate will be found to be dissolved in the water by the morning. (If hot water be used, the copper sulphate can be placed at the bottom of the tub or bucket, and be dissolved in a few minutes.) Then add the water to make 25 gallons. Now take the 4 lb. of quicklime, and put it in a tin pail. Add a few pints of water till all the lime is slaked, taking care to add only a little water at first ; in this way a thick creamy paste is obtained. Add water to make 25 gallons. We have now 25 gallons of copper sulphate solution, and 25 gallons of “ milk -of -lime.” When the two substances are thus diluted with water, they can be mixed together by pouring one into the other, or a bucketful of each can be poured simultaneously or alternately into a third tub — a wooden bucket being used for the copper sulphate solution. The “ milk-of-lime ” must be well strained, and it is advisable also to strain the Bordeaux mixture before spraying. In this way we obtain 50 gallons of Bordeaux mixture of the best quality.

Two points are of primary importance in making Bordeaux mixture. The first is that quicklime , in lumps, that is to say, as freshly burnt as possible, should be used. Powdered airslakecl lime, such as is often found in builders’ yards, will not make Bordeaux mixture. The second point to observe is that the two constituents, viz. copper sulphate and lime, are diluted with water as much as possible (consistent with the formula) before being mixed together. If concentrated solution of copper sulphate and lime are mixed together, and water then added to

I make up the 50 gallons, the resulting Bordeaux mixture will be of very inferior quality.

The method of mixing described above is that recommended by all scientific authorities in the United States and in our Colonies. Bordeaux mixture prepared by growers in accordance with these instructions has long proved in these countries to be of the greatest value, under practical conditions in the orchard and plantation, in keeping off fungus pests from cultivated plants. According, however, to the recent important investigations of Mr. S. U. Pickering into the nature of Bordeaux mixture, a slightly superior method of mixing the two constituents is “ to take the lime in as weak a condition as possible and, consequently, the copper sulphate in as strong a condition as possible, and to add the copper sulphate to the lime. The ‘ milk-of-lime,’ after being diluted with the bulk of the water and stirred up several times during about half an hour, should be left for the grosser particles to settle before the copper sulphate is added to it, and, after the addition of this, very little more stirring should be done.”

Bordeaux mixture is fully efficacious only when freshly made, and will not keep. If more than a day old, it requires to be very thoroughly and constantly stirred while being used, and the use of only freshly -made Bordeaux mixture is far more economical in the long run, and is here strongly recommended.

If a considerable quantity of Bordeaux mixture is required for use, the making of stock solutions of copper sulphate and lime, which can be kept through the spraying season and used when wanted, saves both time and labour, and is free from all objections. The stock solutions are made as follows : take two 50-gallon barrels. In one dissolve 50 lb. of copper sulphate in exactly 50 gallons of water. In the other slake 50 lb. of lime by the gradual addition of a little water ; to the creamy paste thus obtained add water to make exactly 50 gallons of “milk-of-lime.” These stock solutions will keep for months. Before the “milk-of-lime” is used, the contents of the barrel must be thoroughly stirred, as the slaked lime will have sunk to the bottom. (Care must be taken to stir the “milk-of-lime” very thoroughly each time before measuring it out, so as to get the slaked lime thoroughly in suspension. If this is done there is no difficulty in obtaining the correct quantity of lime per gallon of fluid.) Each gallon which is taken out from the “stock solutions” will be equivalent, respectively, to 1 lb. of copper sulphate or 1 lb. of lime. The required amount of each stock solution is then diluted with water, according to the formula given above, before being mixed together. The “ stock ”

CHAP.

copper sulphate solution must he measured out in a wooden pail.

If it be desired to economise space the “ stock solution ” of copper sulphate may be kept at the strength of 2 lb. of copper sulphate to each gallon of water, that is to say, 100 lb. of copper sulphate may be dissolved in 50 gallons of water. It is not well, however, to increase the strength of the “stock solution ” of lime, since the slaked lime in “ milk-of-lime ” made at the rate of 2 lb. of quicklime to one gallon of water settles so quickly that it cannot be measured out accurately.

The barrels containing the “ stock solutions ” must be kept under cover, i.e. protected from sun and rain. If stood in a shed, and covered with fairly close-fitting lids made by nailing sacking round the edges of a wooden hd — such “ stock solutions ” keep perfectly satisfactorily throughout the spraying season. Two 50-gallon barrels hold sufficient for the making of 625 gallons of Bordeaux mixture ; while if the “ stock solution ” of copper sulphate be increased in strength to 100 lb. in 50 gallons of water, and another 50-gallon barrel of “stock solution ” of “ milk - of - lime ” is added, these three barrels will supply enough to make 1250 gallons of Bordeaux mixture. By storing such “ stock solutions ” made just before the summer spraying season commences, the grower has the means of obtaining in a few minutes at any time a large supply of Bordeaux mixture of the best quality.

The making of Bordeaux mixture on a large scale from “ stock solutions ” is greatly facilitated if some simple “ plant " be erected. The erection consists of two elevated platforms. The higher platform is carried on four 9 ft. 6 in. posts, 5 in. by

4 in., sunk 2 ft. 6 in. in the ground and well rammed. Joists,

5 in. by 4 in., connect the heads of the posts, into which they are halved. An intermediate joist is halved into the middle of two opposite joists. The upper platform is 5 ft. square, and consists of 6 in. by 1 in. boarding in the rough, laid to the edges. The lower platform, which is 6 ft. 6 in. square, is similarly constructed, and is carried on sleepers, 6 ft. long and 10 in. by 5 in., set vertically and sunk 2 ft. 6 in. in the ground and well rammed. The two structures are bolted together at the two back posts, and where the front post of the higher platform touches the joist of the lower platform.

On the higher platform are two 50-gallon “ dilution barrels, marked inside at the 50-gallon level, and fitted with taps. If possible, water should be laid on to this higher platform. On the lower platform stands a vat (fitted with a tap) capable of containing 100 gallons. A short length of hose ( “ canvas hose

I is convenient to use) is fitted to the taps of the “ dilution barrels” and of the 100-gallon vat. The process of making 100 gallons of Bordeaux mixture is as follows: eight gallons of the “ stock solution ” of “ milk-of-lime,” and the same amount of copper sulphate “ stock solution ” (or four gallons only if this has been made of the strength of 2 lb. of copper sulphate to the gallon of water) are carried up to the upper platform and poured separately into the two “dilution barrels,” which are then filled with water up to the 50-gallon mark. The 50 gallons of “ milk-of-lime ” thus obtained in one of the barrels is stirred vigorously for a couple of minutes. A strainer is now placed over the vat, in such a position as to allow the hose from the taps of the “ dilution barrels ” to project into it. The taps of the “dilution barrels” are turned on, and — the contents of the barrel containing the lime being stirred continuously — the two 50-gallon barrels empty themselves through the strainer into the vat, filling it with 100 gallons of Bordeaux mixture. The whole process can be easily controlled by one man standing on the higher platform, as with his stirring-pole he can reach the taps and so regulate the flow if necessary, and also stir and clear the strainer should this become clogged. The Bordeaux mixture is immediately ready for use, and can be run off from the tap of the vat into the spraying machine. Thus all the labour and waste of time in handling the mixture are saved; and, given some such “ plant ” as is shown in the illustration, and “stock solutions,” 100 gallons of Bordeaux mixture can be prepared in a few minutes at any time during the spraying season. It is of the greatest importance for a fruit-grower to have the means of obtaining the proper “ wash ” directly the right period of vegetation and suitable weather conditions arrive, — spraying at the right time is just as important as spraying with the right “ wash.”

Good straining of Bordeaux mixture is essential for success in spraying, since, as pointed out below, it is absolutely necessary to use a nozzle with a very fine opening. It is best to strain the mixture twice, in the following manner: first, a strainer with meshes of medium fineness should be placed over the vat. Then a second straining must be given as the Bordeaux mixture flows into the spraying machine. Here the best type of strainer is one with copper gauze with very fine meshes — 35 to 40 holes to the linear inch. Such a strainer, made with a wooden bottom and sides of copper gauze, is fitted to spraying machines. A simple and very useful type of strainer (suitable for “ barrel ” spraying machines and for general straining), as recommended by the United States Department of Agriculture, is made as

CHAP.

follows: It is in the form of a wooden box about 1 ft. square, the bottom of which is formed of hard wood, with a hole bored through it, into which a piece of gaspipe, 1\ in. or 2 in. in diameter and from 6 in. to 9 in. long, is fitted.

The box is, of course, open at the top. Fitting just inside this box is a second and lighter box, also open at the top, and having an overhanging strip nailed round the top which supports it. The bottom of this inner box should be made so as to slope at an angle of about 30°, and should be made of fine copper gauze. The slanting bottom makes it harder to clog, and the inner box, being removable, can be inverted and washed in a tub of water. Bordeaux mixture, if properly strained, will pass easily through nozzles which throw the finest “ misty ” spray, while if not properly strained, frequent clogging of the nozzle will result.