March 2, 1903.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST, 
593 
VANILLA GROWING AND CURING. 
{Concluded from page 522.) 
GATHERING THE CROP, 
Nine months after the flowers appear the beans 
shoald be fit to gather. Before this they show the 
approach of maturity by changing from a dark to 
a fight green, and here very many are harvested 
when they reach that stage. Many of the beans so 
gathered spoil in the caring and the balance are always 
liable to mould when packed. 
The bean of F. ponpona which is not liable to split 
upon the vine should be left, until it has assumed a 
distinct yellow tint. It can even be left until the 
lower end begins to torn brown. Beans gathered in 
that stage will not spoil in the dying. The planta- 
tion should be gone over carefully twice a week and 
the ripe beans removed singly, being careful to 
separate the bean at its junction with the stem as 
the npper end is very easily broken. The practice 
obtaining here, of cutting olf the whole bunch as soon 
as the first bean shows signs of ripening is a bad 
one. As several weeks elapse between the opening 
of the first and last flowers so it is with the ripening 
of the beans. Consequently when the first bean on 
the bunch is ripe the latest should not be in a fit 
condition to pick. 
V. planifolia owing to the tendency of the bean to 
split cannot be left so long on the vine. This must be 
gathered when the lower part of the bean begins to 
turn yellow or even when the line up the side of the 
bean becomes yellow, 
CURING. 
This is the most important and difficult part of the 
work of the planter, and if neglected, will render all 
the previous work abortive. Any one can grow Vanilla 
but it requires care and experience and constant atten- 
tion to cure it well. The following are methods which 
have proved successful with me, and by following 
them the beginner cannot go far astray, but a year 
or two of practical experience will be of more service 
to him than all that can be written. I will first 
give the methods employed by me in curing V. pom- 
pona which, however, cannot be applied to T. plani- 
folia without incuring too great a loss in split beans. 
When the beans are first gathered they are taken 
to the house and spread out, where the sun cannot 
strike them, six or eight inches deep, upon the floor 
or shelves, until they turn brown. This takes from 
one to three weeks, depending upon the state of 
maturity of the beans, when picked. Beans picked 
toosoon. will sometimes lie for six weeks before turning 
brown. Those which have been thoroughly ripe when 
gathered begin to turn brown at the blossom end, 
those which have been picked before maturity, at 
the stem end or in the middle. When the beans have 
arrived at a uniform state of colour (a deep red brown) 
they can be exposed to the sun. 1 use wooden trays 
for this purpose, three by six feet and two inches deep 
in them. For the first two or three days' exposure 
it is immaterial whether the beans be covered with 
blankets or not. They should be turned two or three 
times daring the day, bringing the bottom beans 
uppermost each time, so that no one part of any bean 
is exposed for too long a time to the sun.' This 
applies to the whole period of curing and is of the 
utmost importance. If neglected, some of the beans 
are sure to be burnt red by the sun. 
About three p.m., or whenever rain threatens, before 
the sun has lost its power, and while the beans are 
still hot, the traya are removed to the house, stacked 
one upon the other and covered with blankets. The 
beans thus retain their heat through the night. At 
the close of the third or fourth day the beans are 
removed from the trays and packed while hot into tins 
and closely covered. {Here we use old forty pouds 
biscuits tins for the purpose.) In these tins they are 
allowed to remaiu for a couple of days, when they are 
75 
again spread on the trays and exposed to the sua as 
before. Upon being removed from the tins it will 
be found that the beans have sweated and are covered 
with moisture, while there will be considerable water 
in the bottom of the tins. After the first sweating the 
beans must never be exposed to the sun unless covered 
with blankets. Some authorities are unanimous in 
stating that black blankets are essential, but I have 
never seen a black blanket used. The kind that we 
almost invariably use are condemned French Army or 
N*vy blankets, and these are of a dark olive green. 
The heat, dampness and oil of the Vanilla, very quickly 
rot the blankets which are used for this purpose. 
From this time onwards these processes are alternated 
a day in the sun and a day or two in the tins, until 
tlf<e beans are nearly dry. When, however, the beans 
have begun to shrivel and are soft and pliant, they 
may be left for a couple of weeks at a time in the tins, 
without sustaining any damage, only the tins must 
be kept as nearly air-tight as possible. 
As some beans dry more rapidly than others (the 
best beans always takes the longest time) towards the 
end of the drying operation, they must be sorted 
over and the dry beans picked out and this must be 
done before each exposure to the sun. The bean must 
not be too dry. It mast be of a dark chocolate brown 
pliable but not "mashy" when rubbed between the 
fingers. The corrugations formed in drying must 
show distinctly and not disappear when the bean is 
bent and drawn over one of the fingers and it should 
have an oily look and feel. When the beans have 
arrived at this sorting stage they should never be 
exposed for too long a time at once to the sun, not 
for more than half a day at a time and during that 
time should be turned at least twice. This is to pre- 
vent their being burnt by the sun. One thing 
deserves particular attention, however. The beans 
must never be spread upon the trays, exposed to 
the sun, less than one inch in depth. If spread singly 
the stalk end of some is sure to burn. Another 
method which I have tried follows the course pursued 
in the preceding until the beans have lost about 
helf their weight or rather more and have become 
sensibly wrinkled. They are then spread singly upon 
frames, covered with wire cloth, thin sacking or 
netting in a house with plenty of ventilation and 
allowed to dry there. The frames require looking 
over every second day, to pick out the dry beans. Either 
process makes good vanilla. The second is the safer 
ljut requires more house room and requires a little 
longer time. There appear to be many ways of curing 
V. planifolia. Three of these I have tried and will 
describe. These are, by means of the oven, hot water 
and exposure to the sun. The object of all is as far 
as possible to prevent the splitting of the bean. T", 
planifolia, unlike V. pompona which seldom splits on 
the vine, and never after it is gathered, is liable to 
split during the process of curing and this greatly 
depreciates its value. Hence more care has to be 
taken with it, than with V, pompona. For all these 
processes the bean is taken as soon as gathered 
from the vine, and is not allowed to get brown as is 
V. pompona. 
The Oven Process. — For this an ordinary brick or 
stone " bake oven " is reqnirad, which is heated in the 
ordinary fashion as for baking. The heat is then 
allowed to decrease until it reaches a temperature of 
from 150 degrees to 18Q degrees. The right tempera- 
ture for any particular oven can only be ascertained 
by experiment. The Vanilla has already been prepared 
by putting it, carefully laid head and tail, and as 
far as possible beans of the same length in the same 
package in packages of one thousand beans, wrapped 
first in green banana leaves and then in rocking, 
thoroughly saturated with water and secured tightly 
around the package. These packages are then ar- 
ranged in the oven upon a platform of battens, to keep 
them from touching the bricks and then that is closed 
and left for from twenty-four to thirty-six hours. 
The time here ia alsg a ma^er of experiment aa 
