52 <3eo0rapbicai Botes on /IDejico, 



that the tree requires several years to reach maturity and to bear fruit, 

 and few investors can afford to wait the necessary time. 



Vanilla. The vanilla bean grows very luxuriantly on the Gulf coast 

 of Mexico, and it has been for some time a very profitable production, 

 especially in the counties of Papamtla and Misantla, in the State of 

 Veracruz, on account of the excellent quality of the bean and the 

 high price which it brings. It grows in a region which is subject to 

 intermittent and remittent fevers, and sometimes yellow fever, and 

 where labor is very scarce ; for these reasons it has not attained a 

 greater development. I hardly think there is any locality where the 

 vanilla vine grows better than in Mexico. 



Vanilla requires a hot, moist climate, and, therefore, the lowlands 

 are best suited for its culture. Very little of the vanilla produced in 

 Mexico is at present grown at an elevation exceeding 1000 feet. At 

 the same time it is claimed that in some places it thrives up to 3000 

 feet. 



The vines will usually produce considerable vanilla in the third 

 year, and they will yield considerably more during the fourth, fifth, 

 sixth, and seventh years, and the production then begins to decrease. 

 But before this time new rootlets have been dropped from the old 

 plants, which form new vines that take the place of the old ones ; thus 

 the plantation is kept in a state of continued production. The central 

 portion of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec is one of the most suitable re- 

 gions for its cultivation, as much wild vanilla is found growing in the 

 forests there. 



The Mexican vanilla dealers have established five grades, namely : 

 First, vanilla " fina," or legal, the beans and pods of six and a half 

 inches long, or upwards, short in the neck, sound and black, and the 

 beans which become split or open, provided they have the foregoing 

 qualities and the split does not extend more than a third of the pod. 

 This class is again divided into "terciada," which is composed of the 

 shortest pods ; " primera chica," " primera grande," " marca menor," 

 and " marca mayor," the largest of all. Second, " vanilla chica," 

 those pods which differ from the " terciada " only in being shorter, two 

 of them counting as one of the first class. Third, vanilla " zacate," 

 the pods of all sizes, which are off color through being gathered before 

 becoming properly ripe, or being over-cured ; " pescozuda," " vana," 

 " cueruda," and " aposcoyonada," names for pods in a more or less 

 damaged condition. Fourth, vanilla " cimarrona," the wild vanilla in 

 good or fair condition, three pods counting as one of the first class. 

 Fifth, the " rezacate," composed of the very short pods ; of those 

 split all the way up to the stalk, of the badly damaged, of the very 

 immature, and of the greatly over-cured ; of this, six pods count as 

 one of the first class. 



