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THE NUTMEG STORY

Prepared for the Delegates to
The Caribbean Conservation Association May 5&emdash;7th, 1967.
with the Compliments of the President,
The Grenada National Trust


Background

Breaking the Indonesian Monopoly

Introduced in Grenada

Grenada Takes Over

Acknowledgements

Conservation Legislation 1956-1965

- - Go on to read: "That's Not All There is to Nutmeg . . ."


BACKGROUND

Grenada is such a geologically recent volcanic island, that it is remarkable it
should have at least three biological items peculiar to itself&endash;A Dove,
Leptotila wellsi, a sub-species of snake, Clelia c. groomei, the Mountain
Cabbage Palm, Euterpe haglevi, and perhaps one of the Grand Etang Ferns, Danaea
spp. None of these however have the popular appeal of a Kiwi or a Kangaroo, so
that, for a National Emblem incorporated in the island flag, the alien Nutmeg,
Myristica fragrans, was adopted as from March 3rd, 1967. This fruit has indeed
served us well commercially for the past seventy-five years and it is
responsible for the man-made "Spice Island of theWest".

Nutmegs had appeared in Europe by the end of the 12th century, for the Holy
Roman Emperor, Henry VI, was said to have entered Rome in 1195, whilst the air
of the streets was sweetened with incense from burning nutmegs and aromatic
herbs. The former must have come by over-land caravans from "the Far East,"
their exact origin being unknown in the West until 1512, when the Portuguese
found them growing in the Banda. Islands of the Moluccas (also perhaps Amboyna).

The Banda group was annexed by the Dutch at the beginning of the 17th century
They retained their hold on the islands, apart from a short period of British
control, 1654.-1664, until 1796 when the British again took control They were
restored to the Dutch by the Treaty of Amiens, 1800, and (again after further
British inroads) by the treaty of Paris, 1814, remaining so aligned until recent
years. The native population was evacuated by the Dutch; the nutmeg Plantations
being subsequently worked by convicts and Sultanate slaves until their
emancipation in l86O. The nutmeg monopoly, so established, was jealously
guarded; the seeds for export being subjected to the process; of "liming" to
prevent germination.

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BREAKING THE INDONESIAN MONOPOLY

The French, hoping to crack this monopoly in 1769 authorised M.Poivre to
organise a. clandestine expedition to the least frequented parts of the
Moluccas. On the 24th June,1770, this brought to Mauritius, 400 nutrneg trees;
10,000 nutmegs either growing or ready to grow; 70 clove trees and a chest of
cloves. These were planted in all different available soils, but the Abbe Raynal
observed the same year that "most of the young plants die, and the rest will not
probably bear any fruit'. Similar trials in Cayenne seem to have been equally
unsuccessful (Mauritius stil1 subsists on a cane monoculture) However, in the
second British interregnum, The British East Indian.Coy sent Mr C Smith to The
Moluccas to collect nutmeg seed for planting in Penang Island, l796 where the
cultivations flourished for many years. Other plantings were also attempted with
varying success in Calcutta, Madras, Brazil, several West Indian Islands, (not
Grenada) and of course Kew.

By 1812, the David Brown family was beginning to make nutmeg a major crop of
Penang, encouraged no doubt by Thomas Stamford Raffles who had. been sent there
by the B.E.I.Coy in 1805. By 1818, Sir Stamford as Lt-Governor of Bencoolen,
Sumatra, was supporting the cultivation of spices both there and, a year later,
in Singapore, his political child, with a view to breaking the Dutch trade. By
l824., nutmegs had become establisted in some West Indian Islands as one of the
first trees to be planted in the Trinidad Botanic Gardens.There is no evidence
that West Indian spices were yet of any economic importance.

.A curious link between the West Indies and the East Indies now appears. The
.East Indies had entered the sugar market on a large scale. But it was realised
in 1836/38 that the system of sugar extraction was greatly inferior to that of
the West. As a result West Indian overseers were called in as managers to
introduce their system, an invasion, which took place in the mainland Province
Wellesley of Penang in 1840. These agriculturists, returning home on leave, or
on retirement, would certainly have brought nutmeg seeds with them; for by 1850,
European beet-sugar had begun to control the world sugar market. In fact, a "red
light" had become visible and alternative crops were being sought.

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INTRODUCED IN GRENADA

It has been positively stated that the first planted nutmeg was introduced to
Grenada by Hon: Frank Gurney, with seed brought from Banda in 1843; Belvidere
Estate,St John's Parish,being the supposed site of his activities. This estate
was in the hands of Thomas Duncan in 1824. and the name of Gurney has not been
traced again until Cyril Gurney, son of a Norfolk clergyman, married a Hankey
and joined the firm of Thomson Hankey about 1884. Mr T.J.Gurney is a member of
that Board today. Messrs Thomson Hankey were the original merchant-bankers and
produce factors of Grenada.

Estate managers, returning from the Far East before 1850, may well have planted
nutmegs in the area between Soubise Point and Birchgrove, in St Andrew' s
Parish, the names of Lessey and Munro being associated with Bellevue and Capitol
Estates. It is probable that these were the first commercial plantations. A
portion of Capitol is now called Penang Estate, which is most significant. This
had belonged to the Bell family from 1778 (although not listed in Gavin Smith' s
survey of 1824.). The son of the first owner, Captain John Bell,R,N. "brought
nutmegs from the Far East, 'because he liked his punch'. He also planted them at
Penang Estate&endash;date unknown". It may be postulated that he named the field
first planted after the place of origin of his seed, subsequently transfering
the name to the whole property, when the crop proved successful---doubtless many
years after Smith's survey. It is noted here that there seems, at the present
time, to be a radical difference between the Grenadian and Indonesian nutmeg in
colour, shape, size,both oil contents and flavour.

Disaster now struck the Far East. In 1851, "A worm attacked plantations in
Bencoolen. In 1859, a worm (or beetle) attacked the Penang trees; by night the
tree was attacked &endash;next morning the top branches withered and all leaves
fell off---the trunk then disintegrated in a remarkably short time." The
plantations of Singapore were suddenly reduced from 56,000 trees to a few
hundred. Penang and province Wellesley were not so badly affected at first, but
their plantations diminished progressively from an estimated l4,500 acres of
nutmegs to a few small garden plots in the next ninety years. This is
reminiscent of the Sudden Death disease or Apoplexie of Clove trees, Eugenia
aromatica, (also indigenous to the Moluccas) in Zanzibar island and Madagascar.
Something of this sort occurs in Grenada; a plantation of nutmeg losing perhaps
half a dozen trees annually. An isolated tree is seen to be sick, the upper
foliage wilting within a couple of days. Within a week twigs have dropped and
after a further ten days the trunk is virtually rotten. The prudent p1anter will
dig a trench two feet deep around the dead or moribund tree; brushwood is then
piled within this perimeter and the whole destroyed by intense heat. So far this
treatment has perhaps obviated any epidemic, although the approach is
necessarily negative. A virus, rather than a worm or beetle is the most probable
enemy.

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GRENADA TAKES OVER

Grenada became aware of the far eastern disasters and seems to have started
planting nutmegs seriously, as an economic crop, sometime after 1860 and after a
good deal of experimentation on soil and climate. Belvidere, although the site
of the first planting, did not come into economic production of nutmegs until
sometime after 1880. Nutmegs retained a scarcity value for some time, as for
some years after 1880 a single tree outside the back door of Good Hope Estate
house, St Pauls, produced no less than £40 each year as "pin~money" for the wife
of Canon Branch. Exports are, however, recorded for the first time in 1881, when
nearly 100,000 lbs of spices, i.e., nutmegs and mace, left the island. In a
number of the "Kew" magazine for 1891, there is an article by a Mr Gurney, "who
was in charge of Colonel Duncan's estates",(believed to have still included
Belvidere) in which it. was said that there was a plantation of 10 acres of
nutmegs yielding spices to the value of one thousand pounds.

Over the next twenty years, progress seems to have been slow in the island as a
whole, for in 1909 the total value of nutmeg exports was only 12,000 and of mace
6,000. However by 1919 these had risen to 54,000 and 14,000 respectively. In
1928, the volume of the crop had increasced by forty percent and the value per
pound had more than doubled. By 1950, competition in the spice market had become
acute. The Grenada Co-operative Nutmeg Association had been formed to deal with
business policy; but production was over-running demand and approximately one
third of the Grenada crop was surplus to world requirements. Storage began to
present difficulties; but luckily, facilities were contrived, for, when the
hurriane of 1955 had swept across the island, the old crops kept our markets
alive.

The nutmeg tree is ill-adapted to weather a full scale tropical storm. The head
is heavy, the root system shallow; planted closely together as was the general
practice, the trees were uprooted. They then coalesced and rolled about like
gigantic and ever increasing snowballs. The immediate picture was one of utter
disaster. However, isolated trees were left standing, or recumbent but still
rooted, and it was soon apparent that these individuals fruited more
prolifically than those growing in the thick canopy of the old plantations.
Marcots and seedlings were soon established and the industry struggled through
on its reserves ably assisted by the chaotic political situation in Indonesia.
The trading figures for 1966 were excellent, but, with the usual fluctuations of
agricultural prices there has been a recession in early 1967. However, new
outlets are often there for the.seeking and at the moment the medical world is
becoming interested in the properties of nutmegs.

Other spices as Allspice (Pimento), Black Pepper, Cinnamon, Clove, Ginger, Musk
Ochra, Sapote, Sesamu, Tonka bean and Vanilla are grown in Grenada, but the
quantities exported commercially are small.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My thanks are due to all the agricultuists, who have discussed nutmegs with me
:over the past 20 years and, to mention one, to Mr Leo V. de Gale, St Georgets,
who has been most helpful in this present enquiry

also Mr C.Michael Hughcs, Chairman of .Mssrs.Thomson Hankey and Co Ltd, London,
E.C.4. who has been most kind in supplying historical notes on the nutmeg and
personalities in Grenada; alas, this firm's old records were destroyed in the
London blitz;

Mrs F.L.Pearce, of the Park Estate, St Pauls, who kindly gave me the information
about the Bell family and Penang Estate;

and Captain John W.C Treeby of St Pauls, whose historical data on the inter-rel
ationship of sugar and nutmegs in the West and East Indies formed one of the
nuclei for this note.


J.R.Groome

President, Grenada National Trust

Grenada Boys' Secondary School

St George's.

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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Caribbean Conservation Association, May 1967.

GRENADA.

Recent Legislation relative to Wild Life Conservation.


 

Ordinance No. 25 of 1956.

> "An Ordinance to amend the Forest Soil and Water Conservation Ordinance of
> 194.9".

Ordinance No. 26 of 1956.

> "Bird and other Wild Life.(Protection of) Ordinance". Laws of G/da, Cap: 36..p
> 347.. Absolute protection for all wild birds and their eggs, with the
> exception of 19 named species for- which there is a
>  * Close Season, 1st March to 31st August
>  * Close Season for Oysters, 1st May,to 30th September
>  * Close Season for Turtles and their eggs 1st June to 30th September. Minimum
>    weight for turtles: 25 lbs.
>  * Prohibition of fishing by poisons or explosives.

 

Ordinance No. 29 of l956.

> "Wild Animals and Birds (Sanctuary)' Ordinance."
> 
> Cap: 314. P. 37918, further amended by No. 3 of 1963.
> 
> To establish the Grand Etang Forest Reserve as a Sanctuary for the-Wild
> Animals and Birds of the Colony:
> 
> The Armadillo, Dasypus, and ALL known Snakes being given absolute protection
> in all Forest Reserves.
> 
> The Agouti, Dasyprocta, being givca absolute protection throughout the Colony.
> Operative in all cases until December 31st, 1972.

Ordinance No. 26 of 1964.

> "Birds and other Wild Life (Amendment)."
> 
> To establish a Close Season for the Spiny Lobster, Marine Crayfish or
> Langouste, Palinurus, 1st May to 30th September. Absolute protection for
> females carrying eggs.
> 
> Minimum weight 1 lb. Minimum length 9 inches.

Ordinance of 1965.

> "Birds and other Wild Life (Amendment)."
> 
> A Bill to establish a Close Season for Sea Eggs, (Sea Urchins), Echinus, 1st
> Arril to 31st August. This has never reached the statute book; it is probably
> unworkable.
> 
>  [To the top of the Nutmeg page]

J.R.G.

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