The clove tree needs no pruning with the exception of topping, and no manuring except by leaves which fall from the trees, which are very good fertilizers.
The flowers are of a delicate pink color and grow at the extremity of the branches. There are from nine to fifteen flowers in a cluster. These clusters, or branched peduncles, are arranged in tricahatomous terminal cymes, jointed to the branches. The unexpanded corolla forms a ball on the top of the bud between four of the calyces. The calyx is elongated and to it the ovary is united. It tapers downward and is the cup of the unripe fruit seed, giving the seed the resemblance of the clove (garafa, which is no doubt a corruption of the French word girofle).
As soon as the corolla begins to fade the calyx changes its color, first to yellow and green ([Fig. 6]), and then to red ([Fig. 5]), and, together with the embryo seed, which is about the size of a small pea, is at this stage of its growth the clove of commerce and is ready for harvesting. If it is allowed to remain on the tree three weeks longer it will gradually swell, forming an oblong berry containing one or two cells and as many seeds. It is then ripe, and is known as the mother clove (by the native, paleng). It has then lost the pungent property of the clove and will have entirely lost its value as a spice, and is valuable only for seed.
The clove, then, we find composed of two parts. The part we use is the flower clove. It is about six-tenths of an inch in length. It has a long cylindrical calyx, dividing above into four pointed spreading sepals, which surround four petals or leaves that are the unexpanded flowers. Thus the filaments are rolled into a globular bud or head of the clove, which is about two-tenth of an inch in diameter. The parts may be seen by soaking the clove in water, when the leaves will soften and unroll. The petals are of a light color on account of their numerous oil cells, which spring from the base of a four-sided epigynous disc with angles directed towards the lobes of the calyx. The stamens are very numerous, being inserted at the base of the petals and arched over the style, which is short and sublate and rises from depressions in the center of the disc. Immediately below it, and united with the upper portion of the calyx, is the ovary, which is two-celled and contains many ovules.
The lower end of the calyx (hypanthium) has a compressed form, is solid, but has internal tissues which are far more porous than the walls, the whole calyx being of a deep, rich brown color. It has a dull, wrinkled surface and dense, fleshy texture, and abounds in essential oil which exudes on a simple pressure of the finger nail.
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.
HARVESTING CLOVES