520 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [B^eb. 2, 1903. 
of goofl Bhade." Of these T have only tried one or two. 
I have been told thv.t in Fiji, tlie only plant which 
will carry the Vanilla through a hurricane is the 
Cioton Oil plant, Crotontialmm. I do not like it. Its 
stems look too much like tho=ie of a cabbage and it 
appears to be short-lived. My favoarite trees, besides 
the nutive onp nlready mentionei are Bauhinia jmrpuea 
and Bixa orellana. The bixa gives the deeper s lade 
of the two. Both grow easily and rapidly fi.ora seed 
and make good supports in from eighteen months to 
two years after planting. The candle nut tree of these 
islands also makes a good post. 
Six by eight, or eight by eight feet is a good distance 
to leave between the posts. I have seen fchern at four 
foot intervals and also the Vanilla planted on fences 
or trellises, but the posts at four feet are much too 
clcse together and trellises when th.iy begin to rot acd 
fa 1 entail too much labour in the replacing. In fact 
it is hardly worth while to try and replace Vanilla 
which has fallen with a post, let alone a wall of 
it. I have spent honrs in replacing posts which 
have rotted and puttini; the vines upon the new 
posts and have never made a satisfactory job of it. 
Of course it is sometimes necessary in order to 
save such immature beans as mav be on the vine 
when it falls, but f >r futave use I would prefer to 
root out the old vine and plant a new one. Here 
I refer to vines of three or four years' growth 
which is about the time tbit trellises and dead wood 
posts take to )ot here. Where wood eating insects 
are bad, only live posts should be used. 
While the plantation has been preparing, a stock of 
vines should have bi en pvovi.^led. Here we have no 
trouble as any quantity is to be had for the cutting 
but iu starting a platjtation in a place where no 
old plantations were ''come-at-able" it might be 
necessary to have recoursn to growing them from 
seed. This I have never tried, but I give the method 
recommended in " La Vanille." " The seeds are ex- 
tracted from the bean placed in a cloth and washed 
many times with strong soap-suds, in order to remote 
the greasy n-atter which envelopes them. They are 
then exposed to the sun until dry and when dry 
are mixed with fine sand or ashes to seperate the 
grains. They are thtu sowed in a box on a soil 
composed of equal pai ta of humus, sand and fern 
soil (terre de scolopendre) which has been well 
mixed and passed through a fine seive. With care 
in watering and a moderate exposure to the sun 
it is possible to obtiiin the yong plants." Wh^re a 
limited number of vines only are to be had, they 
may be cut into lengths of three or four joints and 
planted in a bed composed of dec yed and partially 
decayed leaves and leaf monld. By keeping them 
well matured and shaded, in a couple of months 
they will have made good rootb and can hf removed 
to the plantation. This is preferable to planting 
small cattings at once iu place. Such plants will 
not give a crop under two, or two and a half years. 
The plan followed here is to plant vines of three 
or tour yards in length. Th^se will give a f.<iW 
beans in a year or eighteen mouths from the time of 
planting. Some people claim that by using such long 
vines, the resulting plant is wet)k<=r than one pro- 
duced f) cm shoit cut' ings, but I huve not found it so. 
At any rate whether a vine of six joints or one of 
six yards is to be planted the method to be followed 
is the same. A slanting hol6 is made about a foot 
from the post and a couple of inches in depth. Into 
this the end of the vine is inserted, and the soil pressed 
tightly around it. The vine is then laid flat on the 
ground from the hole to the post and tied to the 
post. The part upon the ground should be of a 
length of tw .1 or three joints. This is thickly covered 
with rotten and dead leaves and rotten wood, and 
on top of all one or two stones to keep the vine 
and its covering i n place. While the vine emits 
roots and its cut end still the strongest roots are 
Bent out at the joints, hence the necessity of covering 
one or two of these. The best time lo plant is at 
)iie begiuuing of the moy soabod, 
I have seen it seriously stated that a hole two 
feet deep should be made and the vine planted in 
that. This I do not recommend, as the Vanilla 
is essentially a surface feeder, the roots spreading 
between the soil proper and the layer of decaying 
matter which covers it. On this account it is not 
only unnecessary to dig or plough the ground, bat 
I believe positively hurtful. It is on the contrary very 
necessary to keep the surface covered with •lecaying 
vegetable matter, aud if the trees suppartiog and 
shading the vines do not yield sufficient material, 
then manuring should be resorted to. That is by 
applying a coating of rotting material SMch as the 
leaves and stumps of binanas, coconut leaves, si able 
manure, guano, &c. Artificial manure should not be 
used. Although doubt ess much nicer looking I do 
not like a '' clean " plantation. By thii I m an one 
which is kept weeded. I prefer to have mine well 
covered with weeds of various sorts. These act aa 
a mulch for the surface feeding roots of the vanilla, 
a very good thing in a dry spell, and the deep 
rooting varieties are constantly bringing ^ip nourish- 
ment from the deeper layers of soil which the roots 
of the vanilla do not reach, conveiting it into food 
(in the shape of their fallen leives, &a.), which the 
Vanilla can assimi ate and placing it where it will be 
likely to do most good, thu-i constantly manu'-iog 
the vine. TradescaiMas although surface feeders, 
act a^ a mulch, and keeps the ground cool and 
moist, and where I have seen it, the VinilU seems 
to thrive. After the vines are plant-d all the care 
that the plantation requires, until the blooming 
begins, is to keep the g owing posts pruned, and 
in case any of the vines grow too high to turn 
them down. On short po4s and trees of course 
the Vanill-i turns down of its own accord, but on 
the taller trees it mast not be allowed to travel 
out of reach. The turning down is a most important 
oneratioH (E'i. Italics), and must not be neglected. 
The plantation should be gone over at least every 
two mouths and vines which have reached a height 
of ten or twelve feet should b^ carefully loosened 
from the tree, for the upper ha'f of their length 
and hung over convenient branches. These hanging 
wines are the ones which produce the fl iwers. Henne, 
the necessity of tumins down. As lonr) a.i the vine 
can continue climbing it loill not hlooin. Do not let the 
vine hang nearer than a foot from the ground. 
Pinch in the end when it has >eached that length. 
The vines have in climbing wrapped their teiidrila 
around their support, an some authorities direct 
that great care must be exercised in loosening thetn 
so that they may not be irjured. From this I 
ciffer. After the vine is sepeaiated from the tree 
the tendrils have no further work to do aud are 
of no further use to the vine, consequently, when 
letiin=; down I simply cnt them ofif close to the vme 
thereby savins time and in many cases the vine also 
when a tendril is wrapped two or three times around 
a twig it takes time to remove and often, as the 
vin.^ is much the more brittle of the two it is 
broken before the tendril is cleared, 
Pkuning.— I6 is the same with Vanilla as with 
fruit trees. When they run too much to wood they 
do not give a full crop of fruit. In consequence 
rank growing vines have to be k pt within bounds 
with the knife. The plant is also benefited by re- 
moving the old vines which have fruited. These 
mav only have given two or three bunches of beana 
and may atill have several buds left o i them which 
might produce flowers, but if cnt off close to the 
t jp of the post, the plant will replace them with one 
of the full neces-ary length by next flowering season, 
which will give more bloom than the old one would 
h've done and probably produce better bians. For 
thi turning down and pruning a small portable aten 
ladder is useful. 
FERTILISING. 
Here V. pompona gives two crops of flowers in 
the year, and occasionally a few flowers at other 
seaeone. The main or largest flowering season begim 
