VANILLA 169 



beneath. Native boys become very expert, and 

 after a little practice fertilize four or five hundred 

 flowers in a morning. The flower falls in a few 

 hours if vitality has been destroyed by too severe 

 pressure, but persists if fertilization has taken 

 place. 



The capacity of the plant must not be over- 

 taxed ; and three or four bunches of flowers, each 

 bunch with five or six pods, will be sufficient to 

 leave. One bean, 8 inches long, is worth twice 

 or more as much as two beans 4 inches long, 

 so nothing is gained by leaving too many pods 

 on a bunch to reduce the average length. From 

 eight to nine months will elapse from the begin- 

 ning of flowering to the beginning of harvesting. 

 Hitherto the various operations have been more 

 or less of a mechanical nature, easily performed 

 by the ordinary African, but harvesting can only 

 be carried out by experienced, reliable, and in- 

 telligent men. A bean is ripe when it begins 

 to turn yellow at the tip, the requisite tinge 

 being recognized by experience. If plucked too 

 soon it will shrivel in the curing and become 

 hard and dry ; if left too long the end will split ; 

 to the serious detriment in both cases of 

 the market. 



In the afternoon the beans harvested that day 

 are plunged for a few seconds into a cauldron 



