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different sorts may be mentioned, in all of which .vanilla does well here : 

 (1) Rich vegetable mould, common enough in forest land as a thin sur- 

 face skin, and also occurring deeper iu valley bottoms. For a quick 

 growth this is excellent. (2) A greasy red clay, also in fair quantity, 

 ©n which vanilla makes good growth. (3) Coarse quartz sand, or 

 gravel, apparently derived from disintegrated granite, not common, 

 but met with in considerable patches here and there. Though so un- 

 promising to look at, this is, perhaps, the best of all. It gives free 

 drainage to the root?, and in wet years plants fixed on it are more 

 likely to crop than those on closer soils, while with ample manuring 

 they grow remarkably well. 



The manner of setting out plantations in the Seychelles has under- 

 gone changes within the last twelve years. Formerly plantations were 

 seen with the rows of vines planted so close together as scarce to leave 

 room for workers to pass betwe-n them. The yield per acre under 

 such conditions was sometimes enormous, but when disease onoe started 

 in a vanillery thus arranged its destruction was rapid and complete, so 

 this system has been mostly given up. Since the loss of so many close- 

 lined plantations the distance between the rows has been increased. 

 Living wood, i. e., small trees, are used as supports for the vines, these 

 being festooned from fork to fork ; but many planters have made use 

 ©f hard-wood posts and bars, the former being notched on top and the 

 latter laid in 'the notches, resting thus 4 to 6 feet from the ground, ac- 

 cording to fancy. Over these bars the plants are hung being 

 looped up as growth is put on. "Wire is sometimes also used instead of 

 horizontal bars. It is much cheaper, but otherwise has disadvantages, 

 notable among which is that it sways with wind and is liable to 

 break the vines, the curvature being too sharp over such a small round 

 surface. However, when plants thicken into a mass this last drawback 

 mostly disappears. 



A third, and, as the writer believes, much better way of growing 

 vanilla, is now more generally coming into practice. This is to plant 

 each creeper on a tree of its own, and where land is cheap it is an 

 advantage if these are well apart. So arranged, the general mainte- 

 nance of a vanillery is certainly more expensive, inasmuch as isolated 

 plants require more manure than when the same number are closely 

 grouped together. The work of flower pollination and crop gathering 

 is also more laborious. But more than a counterpoise to these disad- 

 vantages is the increased security this method of planting gives against 

 wholesale destruction from disease ; for when so arranged a siek plant 

 can be removed and destroyed with greater chance of this being done 

 before any of its neighbours become affected; whereas when growths of 

 different plants are interwoven, either in their roots or shoots, it is 

 difficult to know when enough has been taken up, and there is every 

 likelihood of the disease becoming established beyond control. 



STARTING A VANILLERY. 



To give some notion of how a vanilla plantation is set out and 

 carried on in this colony, it will be convenient to assume that the tree 

 method of planting is the one adopted. A great variety of trees will 

 serve the purpose. Here, on most properties, there is an abundance ready 

 for the work ; but of course where this is not the case suitable trees 



