9 
Under the influence of a good rainfall from November 
1911 until now (March 1914) vaDi.Ua vines are showing very 
good growth especially in those localities where manuring with 
alternate layers of lime and earth following heavy mulching 
with dry weeds is adopted. 
Many complaints were made in times of drought about 
insects attacking vanilla vines, roots or pods or causing the 
death of the plants. At present no such complaints are heard 
and vines of excellent growth are seen everywhere flowering 
and fruiting abundantly in spite of the myriads of ants which 
crawl upon the vines at the time of flowering in search of 
natural juice excretions where a few scale insects happen to 
congregate. These are sheltered by the ants from their 
natural enemies by structures very often made of the “sooty 
mould” found in the neigbourhood on the vanilla props 
attacked by scale bugs. It was long thought that the ants 
were causing the destruction of vanilla flower buds and 
planters now realize that the ants are not injurious having 
seen vines infested with ants flowering luxuriantly under the 
influence of good weather conditions and producing in some 
cases as many as 17 bunches of pods on the same vine. 
The vanilla vines planted in many localities since 1911 
(November,) have not yet come into bearing. The weather 
during the year under review (1913) having been propitious 
better crops are anticipated in the near future. However 
vanilla which was introduced into Seychelles about 50 years 
ago has been planted all over the Colony and the vines no 
longer grow as well as formerly on soils which were devoted 
to the same plant for such a long time. The question of 
manuring has been taken up by a few prominent planters with 
marked success and a new and complete set of experiments is 
being arranged at the Botanic Station in order to help planters 
in the selection of the cheapest and most efficient manures. 
As an example the following plots are being set out: 
lo. No manure plot. 
2o. Pen manure plot. 
3o. Nitrogen with Potash and Phosphate. 
4o. No Nitrogen do. do. 
5o. Nitrogen with Potash only. 
6o. Nitrogen without Potash and Phosphate. 
7o. Phosphate with Nitrogen and Potash. 
8o. No Phosphate do. do. 
9o. Potash in the form of Sulphate with Nitrogen 
and Phosphate. 
lOo. Potash in the form of Chloride. 
llo. No Potash. 
12o. Leaf mould with Nitrogen Potash & Phosphate. 
13o. No leaf mould. 
14o. Leguminous grass with complete manure. 
15o. Fern Grass do. do. do. 
16o. Sea weed 
17o. Lime with complete manure. 
18o. No lime. 
19o. Manure applied indirectly following a crop of 
cassava manured heavily. 
20o. Burnt earth. 
It is also contemplated to carry out a set of field trials 
on l/29th acre plot on an estate near Government House 
newly required in order to determine the best shed trees for 
vanilla, the best props for growing the vines, the best time 
for pruning, the best phsieal and bacteriological conditions 
of the soil and the best method of irrigation and of selecting 
vines to be used as cuttings. 
