ir 



VANILLA 71 



A greater objection, to my mind, is its poverty of 

 shade. 



Most of the Nossibe' planters voted in favour of 

 Albizzia lebbek as a shade for vanilla. Its advantage 

 over the rain tree, Inga saman, so much used formerly 

 as a shade for coffee, seems to be that it is smaller and 

 more easily cut out, if this is for any reason necessary. 

 I should, however, class it as a slower grower, and 

 it has a much smaller spread of foliage. 



The use of the mango tree as a shade is condemned 

 by the Nossibe planters, being injurious to the vanilla, 

 as the shade is too thick and dense. Its slow growth, 

 further, is against its use. 



The cultivation of the vanilla in Madagascar is carried 

 on under somewhat different circumstances to those in 

 many other parts of the world, in that there is a long 

 period of drought, so that even the Jatropha curcas 

 sheds its leaves. M. Touch ais (" Culture de la vanille a 

 Mayotte," Journal d' agriculture tropicale, 1902, p. 38) 

 objects to this plant as a shade tree on these grounds. 

 He points out that the cultivation of vanilla on living 

 supports is open to the objection that during the droughts 

 the moisture of the soil is used up by the supports, to 

 the detriment of the vanillas. If, however, shade trees 

 are used, and the vines grown on trellises, the irrigation, 

 manure, dew, and drops of fine rain are utilised by the 

 vines, and they do not have to share these with the 

 supports. There is a good deal to be said for this point 

 of view. It should be pointed out that the system of 

 cultivation adopted by the planter must be adapted 

 to the climate and meteorological conditions in vanilla 

 culture as in everything else. A system that works 

 well in one country will perhaps be unsuitable in another, 

 and here the planter will require powers of observation 

 and careful thought. In the rain forest region of the 

 tropics excessive humidity must be guarded against ; 

 in the regions of periodic droughts insufficient humidity 

 is the point that should be looked at. Trees that shed 

 their leaves in the dry season will expose the vanilla to 



