Edible Products. 



502 



[Junk, 1910. 



l n the sap iu time causes even galvanised 

 wire to rust, damaging the plant, and 

 ultimately causing the wire to break. 



The clearing is now ready for planting, 

 and, if well brushed, should only require 

 going ever with a brush knife once a 

 year or so. Chipping or weeding is un- 

 necessary if properly shaded, and is 

 detrimental as tending to disturb and 

 damage the delicate roots which are 

 so near the surface as to be barely in the 

 ground at all. A carpet of dead leaves 

 is what is wanted. 



Plants and Planting. 



Vanilla is usually and is best propagat- 

 ed by cuttings. Plants can be raised 

 b> seed, but the process is troublesome, 

 rather intricate, and takes about a 

 year longer. The seed is very minute, 

 and if seedlings are required the seed 

 should be washed in soap-suds, mixed 

 with fine sand, dried, and carefully sown 

 in prepared soil in a specially protected 

 situation — a bush-house or glass germin- 

 ating house by preference. Cuttings, 

 however, are generally obtainable. In 

 such places as the Seychelles, where 

 plenty are available, these cost from 

 4«. to 6s. 8c2. per 100, but here may cost 

 anything up to Qd. each. Cuttings of 

 6 ft. length are best, but if plants are 

 urgently needed may be sub-divided 

 into lengths of not less than threb eyes. 



The best time to plant is at the begin- 

 ning of the wet season about Christmas 

 time, or soon after, when full advant- 

 age of the rain can be taken. Septem- 

 ber plantings— if planting weather ob- 

 tains — save a lot of time, but with so 

 soft and fleshy a plant as Vanilla, 

 watering must generally be resorted to 

 in October and November, or many 

 will be lost. With fortunate weather a 

 September planting may save a year 

 in bringing a field into bearing, but 

 is risky. 



The planting is done by digging a 

 shallow trench some 2 in, deep and wide 

 in the soil at the base of the tree trunks, 

 laying therein a portion of the vine 

 from which the leaves have been care- 

 fully cut off, pressing leaf mould on 

 top and covering or mulching it with 

 dead and rotting leaves and vegetable 

 matter. This accomplished, the rest of 

 the vine is laid vertically against the 

 tree aud tied there by some soft material 

 sufficiently broad not to cut the soft 

 Vanilla. Two plants should be planted 

 against each tree, or if large, with no 

 other trees near it, three, The length 

 of the trench depends on the length of 

 cutting — for 6 ft. lengths three to four 



nodes or eyes, and for three-knot 

 lengths one eye, may be put into the 

 ground. 



The vines grow quickly, and if good 

 seasons are experienced some crop 

 will be obtained in the second year 

 after planting. Usually it takes three 

 years, however, and the plantation gra- 

 dually increases in productivity as the 

 vines increase in length, and are draped 

 round the trees on the pegs or between 

 them on the rails set for them in thick 

 and somewhat untidy-looking festoons. 

 A plantation will last thirty or forty 

 years, possibly more, and is not con- 

 sidered in full bearing till six or seven 

 years old. 



If 250 tree trunks are left standing 

 and two cuttings are set to each, 500 

 plants will be absorbed in the acre — 

 more or less may be planted — there is 

 no hard-and-fast rule for this method 

 of planting in virgin scrub land, but 

 more implies rather dense shade, so 

 less would be the more advisable. 



Manuring and Pruning. 



The Vanilla crop is said to be to some 

 extent an exhausting one, though this 

 is usually only noticeable in plantations 

 where the shade trees are especially 

 grown, the soil is deficient in humus to 

 start with, and the moist and humid 

 conditions so much liked by Vanilla do 

 not exist, and it has to rely for nutri- 

 ment mostly on the soil. 



Usually the radius within which the 

 roots of any oue vine extend is quite 

 small— 3 ft. or 4 ft. at most — so that 

 in virgin scrub land, with a good surface 

 of leaf mould, manuring should not be 

 required for many years, if at all. For 

 sick vines in exposed situations or over- 

 bearing plants the only manure required 

 is humus, which is best supplied by an 

 armful of leaf mould aud dead leaves. 

 Artificial manures should be avoided, 

 and especially animal matter of any 

 kind. 



No pruning is necessary either under 

 normal conditions. Under conditions 

 of too heavy shade or too heavy wet 

 and cloudy weather just before blossom- 

 ing time — about September — sometimes 

 the nipping off of the growing tips will 

 induce the production of flower spikes. 

 Otherwise the only operation of this 

 nature is the careful pulling down of 

 vines that have run up a tree trunk 

 and draping it within reach — also done 

 about September— i.e., before the blos- 

 soming. The operation has to be some- 

 what carefully done, as the vines break 

 easily, and is best accomplished by two 

 persons with long, thin forked sticks 



