51 



a fine chestnut colour. The delicate operation of drying has now to b« 

 commenced ; the beans are spread on matting and exposed every day to 

 the sun during noarly two months ; when the drying is nearly complete 

 sun-heat is no longer needed, and the beans are spread out in a dry 

 place until the necessary degree of desiccation is arrived at. Finally 

 they are tied in small bundles for the market. 



Rdunion process, — The beans are sorted according to length before 

 being subjected to the treatment. The long ones are steeped iu water 

 at 90 ^ C. (194 ® F.) during ten seconds, the medium size during fifteen 

 seconds, and the short ones fully a minute. They are then exposed to 

 the sun between woollen blankets daily until two or three o'clock in the 

 afternoon until they acquire the characteristic chestnut colour. After 

 this exposure, which may last from six to eight days, the beans are 

 spread out under sheds to dry gradually. The sheds in this colony 

 being roofed with zinc, they really constitute drying-closets, through 

 which a current of hot air continually circulates. This desiccation takes 

 about a month, during which time the only care necessary is to turn the 

 beans frequently, so that they dry evenly. At the moment when it is 

 found that the beius may be twisted easily round the finger without 

 cracking — that is to say, when they have acquired a degree ot dryness 

 which c in be judge I only by experience, a fresh operation is commenc- 

 ed which requires the most minute and vigilant care ; this is termed the 

 smoothing process. The operator must pass every bean between his fin- 

 gers repeatedly, for, on drying, the beans exude from their entire surface 

 a natural fatty oil. It is to this oil, which exudes as the fermentation pro- 

 ceeds, that the lustre and suppleness of the beam is due. When the beans 

 are sufficiently dried they are tied into bundles, each of them being 

 composed of fifty pods of uniform length. In this manner three com- 

 mercial sorts are obtained, and termed as follows: — 1. " Fine vanilla." 

 8 to 11 inches long, very dark brown or nearly black, unctuous glossy 

 and clean-looking, and finely furrowed in a longitudinal direction. These 

 soon become covered wicb an abundance of the frost-like efflorescent 

 crystals technically called " givre;" 2. " Woody vanilla" 6 to 8 inches 

 long, lighter in colour, more or less spotted with grey, not glossy. 

 These are generally the produce of pods gathered in an unripe state. 

 They frost or "givre" very little, if at all; 3, " Vanillons" of .vhich 

 there are two sorts, those obtained from short but ripe fruit, which are 

 excellent and frost well, and tbose from abortive and unripe fruit, whoso 

 perfume is simply the result of absorption from the fine beans with 

 which they have so long been in contact. 



There are modifications of these processes, but they do not materi- 

 ally differ. Of course under diff'erent climatic conditions diff'erent modes 

 of curing are adopted, but the sweating or fermentation must be effected 

 by one means or another. 



The finished product being sorted and tied up into bundles accord- 

 ing to the length of the pods, is finally packed into tin boxes of differ- 

 ent dimentions according to the length of the bundles; each box con- 

 taining 10 to 12 kilogrammes ; no paper or wrapper whatever being 

 enclosed, as such might he injurious to the preservation of the poda. 

 The boxes are soldered up and labeled according to the quality of the 

 contents. 



