but in badly exposed places this should be supplemented by a special 
windbreak on the windward side. 
While vanilla can be planted on scattered trees just as they are 
found, it is a crop which requires so much attention that everything 
to simplify and systematize the necessary labor should be done. 
Work is greatly facilitated by. planting in as regular order as the 
conformation of the site permits. On sloping land the rows should 
follow the contour lines of the slope. The ground ' should be cleared 
of all trees and undergrowth and then systematically staked off and 
planted with the trees which are to serve as supports for the vines. 
Posts can be used, but they are not satisfactory as they are soon 
destroyed by white ants or decay. A tree suitable for carrying 
vanilla must branch sufficiently low for the vines hung over its 
branches to be within easy reach. It should also be of rapid growth 
and easily propagated. The dwarf, red-seeded bucare (ErytJirina 
coraUodendron) has proved well adapted for this purpose. Its low- 
branching habit and rapid growth in full sunlight commend it. In 
shade its development is less rapid. In good soil it requires fre- 
quent prunings to prevent its shade from becoming too dense, but the 
growth which is superfluous as shade serves a useful purpose in pro- 
viding material for mulching the vanilla roots. It is preferable for 
the supports to be planted a year prior to setting the vanilla cut- 
tings, but both can be planted simultaneously when an earlier plant- 
ing of shade is impracticable. 
Many different spacings are in use. The vines in the older station 
vanillery (PL II, fig. 1) were set 9 by 9 feet. This furnishes an 
ample area for root extension. Though the maximum root extension 
measured in the station vanillery has been to a distance of 5 feet from 
the base of the support, the roots rarely extend so far. Wide spacing, 
however, simplifies the removal of diseased plants without disturbing 
near-by healthy ones and should retard the spread of root disease. 
It has given very satisfactory results in the station planting. A 
newer planting has been made with the vines set 5 feet apart in rows 
10 feet apart. This wide spacing between the rows facilitates the 
bringing in of manure or leaf mulch and would perhaps prove prefer- 
able to others for terraced plantings on steep sloj>es. Some practical 
growers elsewhere plant their vanilla 4 by 8 feet. These three 
spacings give 537, 871, and 1,361 vines, respectively, per acre. As a 
vanilla vine with roots starting from many points somewhat resembles 
a colony which may make unlimited development under favorable 
conditions, the same hard and fast rules for spacing can not be laid 
down as for plants which are strictly individuals and for whose best 
development a more or less known amount of space is requisite and 
beyond which they will not develop. Closer plantings mean larger 
99368°— 19 2 
