CHAP. 
62 SPICES 
white labour in Australia, and still more under native 
labour. 
MOULDINESS IN VANILLA PODS 
The vanilla pods are much subject to injury from 
attacks of mildew, which has the effect of reducing their 
value, for they take on an odour of mouldiness which is 
nearly impossible to eradicate. The importers of vanilla 
remove the mildew by rubbing the pods gently with 
the cloth, and prevent to a certain extent the reappear- 
ance of the mildew with formaldehyde, but nothing 
can get rid of the mouldy odour of the pods. 
In the matter of mouldiness the pods vary, and in the 
Journal cV agriculture tropicale (August 1905), p. 227, 
M. Henry Lecomte gives an account of observations 
and experiments which he has made on this subject. 
Taking a fruit of Mexican vanilla with the patch of 
mould on it near the stalk, he found, after keeping it in a 
glass tube for three months, the patch of mildew hardly 
increased in size, and by putting a number of partly 
mouldy fruits of Seychelles vanilla together in a tube 
he found that the mouldy portions did not infect the 
healthy parts of the pods, though they were in actual 
contact. Hence he argues that the only vanillas 
attacked by mildew are those which have some defect 
in the preparation, and that under ordinary conditions 
vanilla appears to resist mouldiness. The mouldiness 
constantly develops at the base of the capsule near the 
stalk, which is the part which contains the least vanillin. 
He suggests that too early a cessation of the drying 
process may predispose the vanilla to mouldiness. The 
last phase of preparation, the desiccation of the fruits on 
platforms, has no fixed period, depending as it does on 
climatic conditions. There is nothing to show the 
preparer when they are dry enough, or when they require 
further drying. This being so, one would expect the 
commercial vanillas to show great variations in dryness : 
M. Lecomte obtained, therefore, seventeen samples of 
commercial vanillas and tested them to find the pro- 
