VANILLA, AND OTHER (JULTURBS IN REUNION. 



REPORT FOR THE YEARS 1895-96 ON THE TRADE AND AGBICULTURE OF 



REUNION. 



Consul Bennett to the Marquis of Salisbury. 

 (Received at Foreign Office, June 25, 1897.) 



My Lord, 



I have the honour to enclose a Report upon the Trade and 

 Agriculture of Reunion for 1895 and i896 "v^ith special reference to the 

 successful efforts which have been made in Reunion to supplement the 

 cultivation of the sugar cane, by other cultures suited to tropical cli- 

 mates. 



As many requests have been addressed to this ('onsulate regarding 

 the treatment of vanilla by chloride of calcium, 1 also have the honour 

 to forward a, translation of a note explanatory of the working 

 of the whole system of preparing the vanilla bean, which has 

 been courteously drawn up for me by Monsieur G. Mirel of the Credit 

 Foncier Colonial at the suggestion of the manager. 



1 have, etc, 



C. W. Bennett. 



Few tropical lands, perhaps, can compare with Reunion in the 

 advantages offered to agriculture by varied climates, valley, plain, and 

 mountain. In my report for 1892 a general description of the island 

 was given to which it is for present puriioses only necessary to add a 

 few words to show that, if anywhere, here in Reunion " la petite cul- 

 ture" ought to succeed and pay well, not as a substitute for rhe sugar 

 industry, but in connection with it. Monsieur Mailbrd, in his " Notes 

 sur r lie de hi Reunion," published at Paris in 1862, writes as regards 

 the rage for cane planting which was then even more universal than to- 

 day : " We are convinced ihv.t sooner or later the cultivation of cane 

 will disappear; we can even now point to localities, as, for instance, the 

 lands situated between St. Denis and Possession which were formerly 

 laid out in coffee plantations, and that have nov/ b^en destroyed to 

 plant cane, and where this cultivation has already become impossible 

 owing to the denudation by water of the soil." 



In this prophecy, pregnant with truth, lies the cause of one of the 

 chief agricultural difficulties of to-day. The thoughtless grubbing-up 

 of coffee and clove plantations, anJ the ruthless cutting down of the 

 beautiful forests, full of valuable timber, much of which was cleared by 

 fire, has changed the face of the country. The forests, which formerly 

 acted as sponges sending out fruitful water and humus over the lower 

 lands, are now more or less clear. After rain the water rushes from 

 them in a freshet, carrying all before it, and sweeping the denuded 

 sides of the mountains, gradually reduces them to bare rock or crum- 

 bling shale, and washes instead of fertilising the plateaux. 



