JxtLY 1, 1903.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 29 
care be made to take the plaee of a valuable and 
satisfactory secondary imlustry. 
The document we refer to is the Report of the 
Couiniittee appointed by the GoverDor some 
months ago to consider and report upon the draft 
Ordinance, "to amend and consolidate the laws 
lelating to vanilla." In it the president of the 
Committe, Mr Joseph Vankeirsbiiek, the Director 
of Forests and Gardens, informs His Excellency 
that it is hardly jiossible to give an exr.ct estimate 
of the area of land culcivaccd in vanilla, most of 
the planters growing it in their gardens and 
private grounds and in small quantities. There are 
supposed to be about 3,000 vanilla planters in the 
Colony, but of that number there are not thouoht 
to be more than a hundred who grow yearly 59 
kilos or above. The production of 1902 was 
about 15 tons of green vanilbi, yielding nearly 
3,500 kilos of vanilla prepared for exportation. 
The Committee is of opinion that the cultivation 
of the plant might be easily developed, and that 
if the planters were protected hff good laws they 
would extend the industry. It is a matter of 
notoriety that the vanilla pods sold in the markets 
or hawked about the country are the pro iuct of 
thefts, and with a view of putting an end to such 
a state of things, the Committee make the fol- 
lowing recommendations : (1) that each seller 
and preparer of vanilla shall have to take out a 
license, (2) that every grower shall have a special 
mark for Lis green vanilla pods, (3) the area under 
cultivation shall be declared to ths authorities 
every year, (4) the vanilla shall not be gathered 
until notice thereof has been given to the 
authorities, (o) the plants or pods shall not be sold 
or given away without the purchaper or donee 
taking a certificate of origin ; (6) that; power be 
given to the police to arrest delinquents, with or 
without warrant ; (7) that the declarations that 
have been hitherto made at a police station shall, 
in future, be made ; hrst to the magistrate of the 
district and afterwards to the police, and (8) the 
appointment of a special vanilla Inspector whose 
duty it will lie to visit plantations, factories &c, 
and who will make monthly report to the Koceiver 
General, under whose direct orders he will be 
plaeed. He will receive a salary of at ' least 
K3,60J per annum, his expenses and a share of the 
fines inflicted under the law. He must be well 
versed in the cultivation and preparation of 
vanilla, as well as of the local laws and shall have 
the right to enter any plantation or factory and 
then make any enquiry he may think proper. 
The above are, as we have said, the recommend- 
at'ions of the Committee ; but three of its members 
have sent in a dissent to certain of those sugges- 
tions. Those gentlemen are Messrs Langlois, 
P^guilhaii and de St. Peru, the principal growers 
and preparers of vanilla in the Colony ; and they 
say that as in their opinion — the object of the law 
must be to give secuiity to the planters and there- 
by to extend the cultivation of the plant— con- 
sidering the large number of small growers and 
the fact that they are generally at a more or less 
long distance from the Magistrates' olfiee, it will 
not be possible to ask or expect them to fulhl the 
various formalities required by the proposed law, 
and they therefore think that a sinude declaration 
made before the crops, either to the Magis- 
trate or to the nearest police station, would be 
sufli'jient and would not have the effect of 
discouraging small growers, and that, as regards 
the fifth recommendation of the Committee, they 
think tliat a simple register to be kept by the 
purch:i.ser of vanilla would be svillicient. 
In the Seychelles, where the laws are strict and 
where, on accourit of the nature of the plantations 
and the physical conditions of the country, the 
industry can be carried on with comparative — 
secui ity, great success litis attended the efforts of 
the people to improve and extend the cultivation — 
so much so that vanilla is now the staple industry 
of that dependency, and although we do not sup- 
pose it can ever occupy a corresponding position 
in this Colony, there is no reason why it should 
not receive a great extension and provide employ- 
ment for many persons who are not seeking for it 
in vain. — Mauritius Fla7iters' and Commercial 
Gazette, 
CiTRONKLLxY 01 L. 
{To the Editor, ^'Chemist and Drugr/ist.') 
Sir, — Messrs Hayley & Co. s letter in your last 
week's issue was read with inlerest, as it 
affords a clue to the source of the adulterant re- 
cently found in such enormous quaMiilies of 
citronella oil. In our notes on ihs snliject {vide 
ante, page 98 and 408) we pointed out that the 
sophisticating ngent differed from that employed 
some years back — viz., American petroleum or 
keiosene — in the absence of odour and fluorescence 
characteristic of that article. We found it im- 
possible without a very large supply of oil to separate 
any dehiiite compound which would enable us to 
say positively what the adulterant v^as. Since 
many of the numerous constituents of resin spirit 
are identical with those piesent in Kussian 
petroleum (notably reduced benzenes and 
naphthenes), it is in accordance with our results 
that a petroleum distillate may have been 
largely used for this purpose, and in- 
deed this pos'sibility was admitted in our last 
paper, wherein we showed the similirity in char- 
acter of the two substances. It may be men- 
tioned, however, that it has come to our know- 
ledge, subsequent to the publication of our notes, 
that enormous quantities of resin spirit have been 
exported from this country. We do not agree 
that it has been for some tiriie an open secret 
that gross adulteration has been practised, nor 
does it appear either fair or rational to lay the 
blame for dishonesty in Ceylon at the door of 
the honest importer here. The experience of 
Messrs. Hayley & Co., coincides with our own 
as to the unreliability of Scliimmera test when 
used alone. We lind also that with different 
citronella oils different proportions of resin spirit 
must be added to produce the same effect on the 
solubility, one class of oil passing the test with as 
much as 20 per cent addition, whilst another class 
which would not exclude Winter's brand will 
not stand any addition of resin spirit without 
failing to pass Schimmel's test. The somewhat 
abnormal characters of Winter's oil were noted 
iu a paper by Messrs Umney and Swinton (P J 
August 14, i897, page 139), iu which the following 
jiaragraph was included : — 
We have addressed letters to the two firms men- 
tioned [i.e. Messrs. Fisher and Messrs Winter & Son] 
on the subject of the method of distillation adopted ; 
but although several months have elapsed, up to the 
praseut time have not received I'eplies. We learu 
however, from two independent sources that the oil 
