51^ 
THS TROPICAL AGRICULTUEIST. [Feb. 1, 1904. 
COTTON GROWINO. 
With regard to cotton, the data are more uncertain. 
An indigenous variety grows freely in Tanaland and 
Goeha, and the natives make a rough but quite ser- 
viceable stuff from it, while about ten years ago, a 
German firm experimented with imported seeds 
near Lama. It is not known what was the quality 
of the seeds which they used, but the reports on 
the cotton, which they sent to Liverpool, Naples, and 
G ermany, have been preserved, and are most satis- 
factory. The samples were classified as " resembling 
lower quality Sea Island " and " between Tahiti and 
Sea Island," and priced at from 7d. to 9d. per pound. 
The experiments were abandoned, partly because 
Lamu fell subsequently to the British and not the 
German sphere, and partly on acoonnt of the difficulty 
of obtaining labour. Circumstances have now changed, 
and this latter difficulty exists no longer. It would 
appear that a large part of the provinces of Tanaland 
and Seyidie la eminently suited to the cultivation of 
cotton. Certain varieties are said to grow well on 
islands close to the mainland, and the Lamu Archi- 
pelago presents exactly the conditions required. The 
Tana should offer a suitable soil to those varieties 
which prefer river banks. 
The river is in many parts extremely tortuous, and 
forms a succession of promontories on eiiher side, 
a quarter of a mile long and not much more than 
fifty yards across. These are often overflowed, and 
in any case irrigation would be easy. It is also re- 
ported that Indigofera arrecta is indigenous and 
abundant on the coast. This is said to be the richest 
of indigo-yielding plants, and the only one which can 
compete commercially with artificial dyes at the 
present time. The fringe behind the coast produces 
two or more rain crops of maize during the year, but 
has little or no surface water, 
IN THE HIGHLANDS. 
In the highlands the chief indigenous vegetable 
products which have a commercial value are rubber, 
fibre, and castor oil beans. The castor oil plant 
grows wild nearly everywhere, and the beans 
are easily improved by cultivation. Their value in 
the Protectorate is about £2 lOf . per ton. Various 
kinds of fibre are abundant, and have been well re- 
ported upon both for length of staple and quality. 
A kind of coarse tobacco also grows wild. The suc- 
cess which has attended the eultivation of introduced 
plants is remarkable. Almost every sort of European 
vegetable and fruit can be grown in good quality 
and quantity. An export trade of potatoes to the 
Cape is beginning, and when once the transport has 
been properly organised, practically unlimited supplies 
can be sent* Coffee, from seed introduced from 
British Central Africa, is being grown in Kikuyu on 
two plantations, and the trees are in a most flourishing 
condition. A little cotton has also been grown near 
Nairobi, and the sample sent home has been valued 
at '6d. per pound. 
Sunflowers grow in profusion, and might, it is said, 
be made a paying industry, as the seed is said to 
realise over £11 per ton in Russia. An attempt is 
being made to start a silk industry in the Kenya 
Province, as it is found that Japanese mulberries 
thrive there. The enormous grazing-gronnds afford 
pasturage to large herds of native cattle and sheep, 
but at present the only European cattle are a few 
animals kept by private persons, and no attempts 
have been made to try grazing on a large scale — 
Society of Arts Journal, 
VANILLA. 
The vanilla plant is a vine of a bright green 
Colour, with a smooth, waxy, transparent bark. 
It has a thick, waxy*looking leaf, light green in 
Dolour, six to nine inches long, I^ to 2 inches 
^ide, aud sharply pointed. The vine roaches oat 
tendrils which cling tightly to its tree support 
but do not, as some believe, draw nourishment 
from the tree. The best time to set out the 
vines, or rather cuttings, is in April or May, 
when there is rainy weather. The cuttings are 
the vines divided into lengths, usually 2i to 3 feet 
long, but in the Seychelles Islands planters prefer 
cuttings 6 to 12 feet long which may bear, they 
hold, a year sooner than short cuttings. Some of 
these can be cut in two according to the number 
of joints. Two to three joints are suflScient to put 
nnder the ground, with the same number of joints 
above the ground. The joints are easy to propa- 
gate, in fact they are hard to kill if kept from 
being bruised. A cutting can be kept in the 
house on a dry shelf, and will live for months 
with scarcely any apparent change. In making 
a vanilla plantation mach depends upon the 
selection of the location. The first thing is to have 
the plantation where the pilfering of the beans 
while ripening can be prevented. A vanilla plan- 
tation need not be large ; a few acres, with care 
and proper fecundation, will soon produce excellent 
results from a monetary point of view. Patient 
care and attention at the proper time is the chief 
secret of success. 
The vine requires rich soil, heat, ventilation 
shade and moisture. Rich pockets of land among 
rocks, the soil of ravines and the alluvial lands 
along river bottoms are best. A profusion of wild 
vines of all kinds growing into a jungle, with 
abundant loose soil affording ventilation at the 
roots, is the best proof of the adaptability of the 
land. The land should not be sandy on account, 
of the drought, and should not be stiff clay, which 
will cause the vines to rot during the rainy season. 
There should be plenty of small trees, at the 
feet of which the vines can be planted. Trees 
which have smooth bark, and which never shed 
their bark or leaves, and grow to be no longer 
than two to four inches in diameter and from 7 
to 10 feet high, are best for this purpose. 
Usually a variety of such grow on all wild lands, 
and any of them are good if the trunk of the 
tree be smooth, with plenty of sap. A small 
orange tree affords a good trunk fur vanilla to 
grow to, but physic-nut, cashew, almond, or divi- 
divi can be well ntlised. If, while clearing the 
land, there be not enough of such trees found 
already growing, to plant the desired number of 
vines (there should 6e from 1,500 to 2,000 vines 
to the acre) enough should be planted, selecting 
the kinds that make the most rapid growth, which 
exist in abundance, and are destroyed by the 
thousands in nearly every new clearing of land. 
The ground should be kept clean from weeds. All 
undergrowth should be thrown around the vines to 
decay and serve as manure for the roots. The 
ground around the roots should not be disturbed. 
One or two vines should be planted to each tree, 
and tied at first to the trunk with some fiat, 
flexible band, such as strips of biinana or plan- 
tain fibre. Bound cord should not be need, as it 
is liable to cut and injure the green, succulent 
stem of the vine. Livestock are never permitted 
on a vanilla plantation. The stems and roots of 
the vine are disturbed as little as possible. 
The vines need no cutting or pruning, and all 
other wild vines are cut out and kept from chok- 
ing the vanilla vines. The trees should be topped 
to prevent too high a growth, so that the flowers 
can be reached from the ground. Light and 
ventilation beneath, shade from the sun above, 
rest and plenty of moisture — but free from stand- 
ing surface water— are the prime requisites for the 
growth of vanilla vines. One peculiarity of the 
vine is that after three or four years' planting, 
the stem will rot off at the roots, and continue to 
rot three or four feet up the vine, while the top 
looks green and flourishing. la the meantime, 
from above where it is going to rot, it eboots out 
