44 
If the vanilla is picked too green, its treatment will be difficult 
and its keeping qualities doubtful, the pods will be thin and poor 
after drying, whilst the perfume will not be properly brought out, 
and what there is wili be lacking in quality. 
If plucked when too ripe, the treatment will be easy, it will be 
of good Tus and highly De PA but it will split and thus lose 
much of its commercia 
Ona Miei ventiintaa iid properly exposed decim the pods 
are ripe when the lower part begins to turn ye 
The treatment by chloride of calcium, CaCl,, : as id Indeed do all 
the other methods of treatment, consists of several operations :— 
1. Stoppage of vegetation. 
2. First drying and colouring. 
3. Drying. 
4. Watching. 
1. The process of drying in a stove by means of hot water is 
the one resorted to. On the day of the cropping, or the next day 
at latest, the pods are put to dry by heat in tin cases of the 
following dimensions :—0-220 millimetres by € metres by 
0:350 metres. Old petroleum oil t e generally used for the 
o The size may be slightly stared; but the width and 
breadth of the box should not be too large, as the vanilla in the 
centre should be subjected to the same heat as that which is 
nearest to the sides of the box. Otherwise the treatment of po 
pods in the centre would not be assimilated to that of those 
the sides, and the resultant colouring would be slightly afferent. 
These boxes are fitted with lids closing on the outside of t 
box. They are lined with wool carefully arranged along the 
bottom and up the sides, and a little over the top of the sides. 
The vanilla pods are placed on end close enough to secure 
pressure without damage by rubbing ; a horizontal layer is placed 
on Ree jd these, the woollen eite is folded over all and the 
lid put o 
The bones thus arranged are put into the halves of wine 
barrels and hot water emptied into the barrels up to the lid of the 
boxes, care being taken that no water gets into the boxes. In 
order to prevent the sudden cooling of the hot water, the barrel is 
covered with a piece of sacking. Itis left thus covered during 
one night. 
2. Next morning the Leer are withdrawn and exposed in the 
air for some time to dry; then for two orthree days they are 
kept under woollen coverings in full denim 
For this operation low wooden boxes are used, a single layer of 
pods being placed in the bottom dnd: cover ed with a woollen 
cloth. The boxes are placed in sunlight on trestles to prevent 
contact with the more orless moist earth. After this operation 
the colouring of all the ye will be uniform if the drying by hot 
water has been properly don 
Now is the moment to rit to the dryi ing operation. 
3. The old methods of preparation, drying in the open air upon 
reens in an airy situation, or in hot-air oe in which the heat 
is constantly renewed, result in a loss of perfume and at the same 
time require a large amount of hand labour. "These drawbacks 
are avoided by drying in closed vessels by means of chloride of 
calcium, CaCl. 
