44 



in consignment, and whence considerable quantities are habitually sent 

 to London for sale. In September, just before the arrival of the new 

 crop, a stock of from 15,000-20,000 kilos in Bordeaux, and as big a 

 one in Paris and Marseilles combined, used to be a fair average, but this 

 year the supplies in France did not by any means reach the lowest of 

 these figures, while the London stock was below, rather than above, its 

 usual scanty figure of about 2,000 lbs. The crops of vanilla in Reunion, 

 Maritius, and the Seychelles have been unusually small, and it is said 

 that the crop which is now beginning to arrive will again be a very 

 poor one, while reports of total failure have come from Mexico for many 

 weeks. As the United States require from 130,000 to 150,000 lbs. of 

 vanilla every year, they have been obliged for some time to purchase 

 vanilla in Europe, and their orders have helped not a little to increase 

 the competition and advance the market price of the drug. The Ame- 

 rican requirements are probably rather larger than those of the rest of the 

 world together, and we do not estimate the total consumption of vanilla 

 at much over 250,000 lbs. a year. Setting aside the Mexican produc- 

 tion, and that from the smaller sources of supply, we can count upon an 

 average output of about 160,000 lbs. a year in Reunion, and of about 

 60,000 lbs. a year in Mauritius and the Seychelles. With an average 

 crop, therefore, the present production of vanilla is ample, and if the 

 exceptionally high prices of this year should 1- ad to an extension of 

 cultivation, we maybe confronted with a large over-production within 

 a very few years. For although vanilla is very sensitive to climatic 

 influences, the plant is easy of propagation and yields a rapid return, as 

 the vines begin to bear in their third year, and may continue to yield 

 fruit until their fortieth. Fortunately for those who sell the article, it 

 seems that comparatively few planters can grow it successfully. In 

 Java, where vanilla was introduced in 1819, the culture was at one time 

 of great importance, but at present the island hardly counts as a pro- 

 ducer. In Mauritius, also, vanilla- growing seems to be dying out. The 

 exports from that island fell from 37,600 lbs. in 1892 to 15,400 lbs. in 

 1893 and 9, 100 lbs. in 1894. Reunion exported her first vanilla to Eu- 

 rope in 1849. That shipment was only 7 lbs., but by 1870 the exports 

 had grown to over 20,000 lbs. Since then the largest Reunion crops 

 have been 190,000 lbs. (1891), 207,000 lbs. (1892), and 175,000 lbs. 

 (1893) ; but last year there was a great decrease. The production of 

 the Seychelles has been exceeding^ erratic lately. These islands first 

 sent their produce to Europe in 1885. In the succeeding years they 

 quickly rose to an output of about 80,000 lbs., but equally quickly 

 dropped off again to about 17,500 lbs. a year. According to the latest 

 reports, however, the output next year is likely to show a great increase. 

 The Seychelles and Mauritius vanilla is generally shorter, paler, and 

 fainter in odour than that from Reunion, and realises lower prices. 



The vanilla crop which is now arriving in Europe is that which 

 flowered in the autumn of last year, and was collected from May to 

 July. The last great advances in the market prices of vanilla have 

 been in the autumn of 1886, after which prices remained high until the 

 large crop of 1887 broke the market, and in April 1889, when the re- 

 ported destruction by rain of the Mexican crop caused an advance of $1 

 per lb. in New York in a single day. This movement also lasted several 

 months. — Chemist Druggist, 



