ffdible Products. 



322 



[Oct. 1906. 



specially adapted to Seychelles labour and to the shipping difficulties of the 

 Colony, and there is also a certain amount of profit to be derived from them by the 

 production of hand-press oils (worth 3s. Qd. on the London market). The future 

 of this Colony lies in tree planting on a greater scale than it is at present, 

 and not in cultivating herbaceous plants which are so susceptible to climatic 

 variations. 



Owing to the fall in the price of vanilla, the Curator was asked to prepare 

 an extract from inferior vanilla in order to try to avoid exporting low-grade beans 

 as such. The experiments are not yet completed, and the extracts will soon be 

 forwarded to the Imperial Institute for valuation. A simple maceration of 400 

 grammes of vanilla in four litres of alcohol is not sufficient, and the modus operandi 

 which has given the best results is the following :— The vases containing vanilla 

 arranged in the form of a battery and alcohol at 80° to 85° allowed to remain one 

 week in one vase before being transferred to the next containing fresh vanilla. 

 A sort of diffusion is then practised until the four or six vases have received the 

 alcoholic solution four or six times each. 



CARDAMOMS IN THE SEYCHELLES. 



In July a lecture was given in the Council Chamber of the Seychelles 

 Government, and presided over by His Excellency the Governor, the subject being 

 the Culture and Preparation of Cardamoms. This meeting was attended by forty 

 persons, including the leading members of the community. 



The great analogy between Ceylon cardamoms and the Seychelles " long- 

 ouze " (Amomum Danieltii, Hook.) was pointed out, and specimens exhibited. The 

 numerous ravines in which the "longouze" grows Avild, and many other similar 

 localities were described as being very suitable to Ceylon cardamoms on account 

 of the protection from the wind and the presence of proper shade trees. Shade 

 and protection from the wind were shown to be the only factors worth considering, 

 all the other climatic and agro.logic conditions of the Seychelles mountains being 

 identical with those of Ceylon. 



The numerous uses to which cardamoms are put in India and Europe were 

 enumerated, and the methods of cultivation and preparation were treated in detail. 

 The analogy between vanilla and cardamom preparation was insisted upon, and 

 the fact emphasised that the crop of one plant followed that of the other. The 

 cardamom seeds brought from Ceylon in February, 1903, were sown at the Botanic 

 Station, the seedlings nursed until November, and then planted out at Capucin 

 Crown Land. The plants were grown in poor laterite soil under shade of erioden- 

 dron and spathodea. The first flowers appeared in July, 1905, and the first ripe 

 fruits were gathered in December, 1905. The Malabar variety ripened a few weeks 

 earlier than the Mysore variety. Three planters applied after the meeting for 

 cardamom plants, and all the suckers that could be disposed of, viz., 1,000 were 

 sold during 1905. It was ascertained that Indian cardamoms were sold at Rs. 2"50 

 a lb. on the local market, and that the whole Seychelles crop could be consumed 

 locally or exported to Mauritius and South Africa, thus ensuring the possibility of 

 establishing a secondary industry of some value in this Colony, The ravines where 

 cardamoms should be planted are not occupied by other plants, and those planters 

 who have gone in for the new product have reported favourably on the growth 

 of the suckers which they had purchased. 



The cardamom plant makes good growth in the highlands of Seychelles, and 

 in the experimental plantations at Capucin the first crop was obtained twenty-six 

 months after planting. As stated in other parts of this report, this spice, if produced 

 in this Colony, can be consumed locally and exported to Mauritius and to those 

 parts of Af rica near Seychelles, where Indians bulk considerably in the population, 



