VANILLA 
II 
71 
A greater objection, to my mind, is its poverty of 
shade. 
Most of the Nossibe planters voted in favour of 
Alhizzia lebhek as a shade for vanilla. Its advantage 
over the rain tree, Inga saman, so much used formerly 
as a shade for coffee, seems to be that it is smaller and 
more easily cut out, if this is for any reason necessary. 
I should, however, class it as a slower grower, and 
it has a much smaller spread of foliage. 
The use of the mango tree as a shade is condemned 
by the Nossibe planters, being injurious to the vanilla, 
as the shade is too thick and dense. Its slow growth, 
further, is against its use. 
The cultivation of the vanilla in Madagascar is carried 
on under somewhat different circumstances to those in 
many other parts of the world, in that there is a long 
period of drought, so that even the Jatropha curcas 
sheds its leaves. M. Touchais (“ Culture de la vanille a 
Mayotte,” Journal J agriculture tropicale^ 1902, p. 38) 
objects to this plant as a shade tree on these grounds. 
He points out that the cultivation of vanilla on living 
supports is open to the objection that during the droughts 
the moisture of the soil is used up by the supports, to 
the detriment of the vanillas. If, however, shade trees 
are used, and the vines grown on trellises, the irrigation, 
manure, dew, and drops of fine rain are utilised by the 
vines, and they do not have to share these with the 
supports. There is a good deal to be said for this point 
of view. It should be pointed out that the system of 
cultivation adopted by the planter must be adapted 
to the climate and meteorological conditions in vanilla 
culture as in everything else. A system that works 
well in one country will perhaps be unsuitable in another, 
and here the planter will require powers of observation 
and careful thought. In the rain forest region of the 
tropics excessive humidity must be guarded against ; 
in the regions of periodic droughts insufficient humidity 
is the point that should be looked at. Trees that shed 
their leaves in the dry season will expose the vanilla to 
