62 SPICES 



CHAP. 



white labour in Australia, and still more under native 

 labour. 



MOULDINESS IN VANILLA PODS 



The vanilla pods are much subject to injury from 

 attacks of mildew, which has the effect of reducing their 

 value, for they take on an odour of mouldiness which is 

 nearly impossible to eradicate. The importers of vanilla 

 remove the mildew by rubbing the pods gently with 

 the cloth, and prevent to a certain extent the reappear- 

 ance of the mildew with formaldehyde, but nothing 

 can get rid of the mouldy odour of the pods. 



In the matter of mouldiness the pods vary, and in the 

 Journal d? agriculture tropicale (August 1905), p. 227, 

 M. Henry Lecomte gives an account of observations 

 and experiments which he has made on this subject. 

 Taking a fruit of Mexican vanilla with the patch of 

 mould on it near the stalk, he found, after keeping it in a 

 glass tube for three months, the patch of mildew hardly 

 increased in size, and by putting a number of partly 

 mouldy fruits of Seychelles vanilla together in a tube 

 he found that the mouldy portions did not infect the 

 healthy parts of the pods, though they were in actual 

 contact. Hence he argues that the only vanillas 

 attacked by mildew are those which have some defect 

 in the preparation, and that under ordinary conditions 

 vanilla appears to resist mouldiness. The mouldiness 

 constantly develops at the base of the capsule near the 

 stalk, which is the part which contains the least vanillin. 

 He suggests that too early a cessation of the drying 

 process may predispose the vanilla to mouldiness. The 

 last phase of preparation, the desiccation of the fruits on 

 platforms, has no fixed period, depending as it does on 

 climatic conditions. There is nothing to show the 

 preparer when they are dry enough, or when they require 

 further drying. This being so, one would expect the 

 commercial vanillas to show great variations in dryness : 

 M. Lecomte obtained, therefore, seventeen samples of 

 commercial vanillas and tested them to find the pro- 



