38 OBSERVATIONS ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE VANILLA PLANT. 



These pods remain on the tables until perfectly dry. 



During the time they are exposed to the sun, between two and three 

 o'clock every afternoon, while the pods are still hot, it will be necessary to 

 squeeze them strongly between the fingers, to flatten them a little, and to 

 induce the essential oil and the seed (sentence), which are in great abundance 

 in the lower end, to spread equally throughout the pods. They must be 

 thus prepared in order to render them more pliant and more glossy ; in 

 fact, in order to give them the appearance required in commerce. This 

 operation should take place a few days after the pods have been exposed to 

 the sun, when they have become sufficiently faded, but always before the 

 pods are removed to the drying place. 



We may learn easily to distinguish when the pods are dry, for they will 

 become black, or almost of a chocolate colour, and when no signs of moisture 

 are apparent at the heel of the pod, the part which is always the last to dry. 



The dry pods are picked out, and placed in tin boxes, when they become 

 sufficiently dry and pliant. This work may be done every two or three 

 days, and it becomes sometimes necessary to do it every day, according to 

 the number of hands employed, and particularly at the end of crop time. 

 The pods are then made up into packets, and, to insure the packets being 

 of the same length, it will be necessary to shorten the dry stalks of a great 

 many of them. Each packet contains fifty pods, tied round the middle, or, 

 in preference, a little more towards the stalk end : they would open without 

 this precaution. The packets may be tied round with strong fine twine. 



Packing the Vanilla. — The Vanilla pods are packed into tin boxes, made 

 according to the length of the pods and size of the packets, which alters 

 with the number they contain. Each box should contain sixty packets, or 

 six rows of ten packets each, placed one above the other. 



This system of packing is the same as that in use in Mexico, and is ac- 

 cepted by merchants with regard to this article. 



Each tin box should have a label, stating the number of pods, the length 

 of the pods, the nett weight, and the tare weight of the box. The boxes 

 are then, if intended for the French market, stowed in wooden cases, to pre- 

 vent the tin boxes from getting rusty. It is better, and perhaps necessary, 

 to surround the tin boxes with sawdust. 



The " Givre" or Rime. — The "givre," or frosting (of crystals white and 

 sparkling, consisting of benzoic acid), forms on the pods when they have 

 been kept in well closed vessels three or four months after they have been 

 prepared for packing. Many merchants give the preference to Vanilla 

 covered with this crystallization ; some do not care about it ; others, again, 

 require that as soon as the article arrives in France, they should have the 

 means of producing this formation before the Vanilla is exposed to the air. 



I think it does not belong to us to decide such a delicate point ; but we 

 should not prevent this exudation from forming naturally on the pods, lest 

 we might perhaps be helping a process likely to injure the beauty of the 

 pods or their perfume. 



The producers of a large quantity of Vanilla will find it necessary for its 



