Dec. 1, 1902.] THE TROPICAL 
water (190° F.) for ten seconds; this is repeated 
twice, the dips being increased to twelve and fifteen 
seconds respectively, with intervals of half a minute 
between each two. Alier the third dif, when most 
of the Water has drained off the pods are placed 
in a wooden box or barrel lined with blankets, and 
cloi-ely covered up with the same material. When lot 
1 is finished, lot 2 is similarly treated, and for 
them the water may be a few degrees cooler, or 
the dipping times a triflo shortened; and so also 
with lot No. 3, while No. 4 may be treated as No. 2. 
Perhaps it is as well to add that 190° ¥. is not 
an absolutely essential heat, but it is about 
as high as it is safe to go ; while even the longest 
pods may be adequately treated in water at 170" 
F. if they are kept in it long enough. An experienced 
preparer will be guided more by the appearance of 
the pod after each dip than by any fixed formuhi. 
When small quantities are dealt with Itss heat is 
needed, and the above figures are given for a boiler 
22 inches in diameter by 12 inches deep. It is best 
to have good-sized boxes or barrels to sweat the 
pods in, those holding 2,000 or 3,000 each being 
pielerable, for the more pods there are together the 
better heat is retained. The lot> (I, 2, 3, and 4) 
should be kept apart, a fold of blanket being laid 
on each if a.l go into one box. By the lollop- 
ing morning they should have changed to chocolate 
or puce colour, and are then ready to spread on 
the drying shelves; but if there is a laige number 
together, and the heat has been well kept in, they 
may be left for another twenty-four hours. 
A curing house for preparing a crop up to 2,000 
pounds (dry) may have the following dimensions 
and fixings: 30 feet long, 15 feet broad, 13 feet in 
height of walls. It should be divided into four 
counterparts, two on the ground and two above, 
each being approximately 15 by 15 and feet high. 
One eompartnient on the eround floor is used as 
a hot room, having a flue 2 feet wide covered 
sheet iron running through the centre. If the heat 
is too intense from this, sand may be sprinklfd on 
top to reduce it. Ab ve this flue and around two 
sides of the hot chamber tiers of shelves are fixed 
6 inci es apart, on which the pods are spread to 
dry. The shelves may be conveniently made of 
laths, on top of which mats or canvas can be 
laid, or fine meshed wire netting would serve the 
same purpose, perhaps, better than anything else. . . , 
The worker, slitting on the floor, keeps the four 
lots of pods — long, medium, short, and split — distinct 
on the shelves. This facilitates the sorting, the 
short and split pods needing to be examined sooner 
and oftener than the longer and sound sorts, as they 
dry more rapidly. 
A good average heat for the hot chamber is 110° 
P. A few degrees more or less does not matter, 
but pods are apt to dry too quickly if the heat is 
much greater. The tl^wer the progresa the more 
uniform and better i^ tho result. As they being to 
tnin soft and show longitudinnl wrinkles the pods 
are removed from room 1 to 3, and after reaching 
B certain degree of flexibility they pass on to the 
ehelves in room 4 and there finish their curing. If 
kept too long in either a hot or warm room the 
thin ends of pods shrink too qu'ckly, and this is 
to be avoided. In a large crop there are always 
some inferior, ill-nourished pods in which this occurs, 
but the last remark will be useful to a beginner. 
^Vhen fully cured the pods are much wrinkled and 
pliable, bending easily around one's linger. There 
is considerable difference in the degree of dryness 
preferred by diflerent curers. If the coutents move 
easily all along a pod, without any unevenness being 
noticed when it is drawn between the finger and 
thumb, it 13 nearly dry enough ; but the right stage 
can only be learned by experience. When finished 
the pods are well wiped with bits of soft flannel 
and then kept in boxes with close fitting lids. It 
ia better to sort them roughly into lengths as each 
^ay'a lot ja put away, aad tie up the variuua sizes 
in bundles of about 2o0 each if the numbers allow 
of it, for they have to be examined once or twice 
a week in order to remove the moulded ones, and 
this is much more quickly done with bundles than 
when they :ire loose. Moreover, it makes the ultimate 
accurate measuring easier. Either at this time or 
later the different qualities are more exactly separated 
none but fnultless pods, without scar or defect in 
cuiiug, being allowed in the first quality. The rest 
rank as seconds, etc. The split pods and the pods 
that have been cut on account of mould are also 
kept distinct. It is well to keep a crop at least 
three or four months before marketing. By that 
time nearly all shaky pods that are li.ble to mould 
will have shown themselves. All are then measured 
and tied up in neat bundles of 50 pods each of 
even length, the pods varying in length not more than 
one-eighth of an inch. 
The general sightliness of a marketed crop has 
much influence on the price it will bring, and what- 
ever whims buyers get into their heads the pro- 
ducer must conform to or suffer in pocket. Bundle 
tying is somethig of an art, and a deft hand at it 
is valuable. Sixteen or thereabouts of the shapliest 
pods in each 50 are selected for the outside ; the 
rest are tied up as a core, being kept in position 
by a few turns of the fibre-t>ing cord, while the 
chosen sixteen are cirefully placed round them. The 
bundle is tied in either three places, near each end 
and in the middle, or in two places, an inch or 
more from the ends, according to the length of 
bundle. The core-holding string is pulled out before 
the final tie is fixed. Two-lie packets are boxed as 
they are. With those of three ties buyers prefer 
that the end cords be removed before packing, to 
enable them to examine the bundles inside ond'see 
if the contents are of uniform quality. If kept 
tied some time before being packed the bundles set 
as it were and retain their neat shape. The tin 
boxes used here fore packing vanilla in measure 12.V 
by 8i inches in width, are ih inches deep, and hold 
about 12 pounds. Each box has a label pasted on 
it which bears the growers trade mark, the length 
and number of packets, their quality, and net weigh 
and a similar label is puS inside. As some chemical 
action is set up when vanilla rests in contact with 
tin or iron, thin vegetable p.irchment paper is placed 
in the boxes to keep the two apart. The lids are then 
sealed close with pasted paper and the tins packed 
in wooden cases, six in each, and thus dispatched to 
ina.rket.—Agi icultural Keics, 
VANILLA. 
The fruit of the Vanilla planifoUa Amh: does not 
give out the characteristic odour of vanilla when 
freshly gathered ; and it is only after the subse- 
quent preparations that this odour is gradually de- 
veloped. While writing a work on this subject for 
Planters in the French colonies M. Henri Liecomte 
found that this preparation which gives very variable 
results, is pnrely empirical ; and he was induced 
to study the conditions under which vanilla is 
produced. The follovying particulars are taken from 
his notes on the subject communicated to the Paris 
Academy of Science by M. Guiguard. At the outset 
M. Lecomte discovered, in the various parts of the 
vanilla plaut, the constant presence of an oxidisin" 
ferment similar to those studied by M. G. Bertrand" 
and which are now known by the general denomi- 
nation of "oxydases,'' their prcssnce being noticed 
in the stalks and leaves of the plant, the liquid 
extracted from them, the green and ripe fruit, and 
also the prepared vanilla from Mexico, La Reunion, 
the Seychelles, and the Comores. 
Strangely enough, while the most esteemed vanillss 
of commerce contain the oxydases in considerable 
proDortiou, those of inferior quality do not contain 
them at all, or oply to a very slight extent, JJjg 
