360 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Noy., 1902. 
VANILLA PLANTING AND CULTIVATION. 
The following memorandum has been issued from the Government House, 
Seychelles :—No vanilla plantation should be started in Seychelles with a capital 
of less than £1,000, seeing that it takes three years to bring ina crop. Land 
suitable for vanilla, cacao, coffee, and other tropical products cannot be secured 
for much under 300 rupees per acre, and even at this price it is not easily 
obtainable. The ordinary rate of interest in Seychelles is 12 per cent. per 
annum. The local currency is the rupee, the value of which may be taken as. 
1s. 4d. Under the old system (planting on bars, wires, &c.), from 1,900 to 
1,800 vines were planted per acre. Vanilla is now planted on live trees, and 
the number of vines planted depends upon the number of trees existing on 
the land brought under cultivation. Cuttings of quick-growing shrubs are now 
often planted in vacant spots, and vines are grown thereon in the absence of 
trees and within three months of the planting of the cuttings. Vines are 
planted 6 inches long, and began to bear three years after planting, but will 
only come into full bearing in three years more. Vines are worth per 100: 
from 3 rupees to 5 rupees according to district. Wages: Men, 14 rupees to 
16 rupees ; and women, 8 rupees to 12 rupees a month, without rations. On 
hill estates labourers are not easy to get, and most of the Africans prefer 
working on the share system. A man can plant 350 cuttings or vines per day, 
and can keep in good order, throughout the year, 2,500 plants. Women are 
employed for marrying the flowers—i.e., removing the pollen from the anther of 
the flower and applying it to the stigma (fertilisation), without which operation 
the flower is lost. A woman can marry from 600 to 800 flowers per day. No 
flowers can be married after midday. Each vine can produce from 25 to 80: 
pods of different sizes, from 4 inches to 8 inches long. On an average 130: 
green pods go to 1 Ib. of dry prepared vanilla. Pods shrink considerably in 
preparation, losing a quarter of their weight. Local prices: Last year (1901) 
fine pods prepared fetched 6 rupees to 10 rupees per lb. Green pods are now 
being sold at 3 rupees to 5 rupees per 1U0 pods. The regular flowering season 
is from August to December. The cost of preparation varies from 1 rupee to: 
1:25 rupees per lb. The pods are gathered about nine months after the flowers. 
have been married, and curing the pods takes from three to four months. In 
Seychelles, as elsewhere, there are bad seasons (too much rain), in which case 
the yield is poor. The climate of Seychelles is very healthy. The population 
on the 31st May, 1901, was 19,257. The death rate in 1901 was 18°77 per 
1,000. The Seychelles are in direct steam communication with Aden and 
Mauritius by a monthly service of steamers of the Messageries Maritimes. 
Company, and with Colombo and Mombassa by a bi-monthly service of steamers 
of the Imperial German East Africa Company. Steamers belonging to the 
British India Company call, from time to time, at Seychelles. The Eastern 
Telegraph Company has a station at Victoria. 
The rainfall in 1901 in Victoria was 101°83 inches. The maximum shade: 
temperature registered was 88°5, and the minimum 68°4; ithe mean. for the- 
year being 78°50.— Tropical Agriculturist, Ceylon. 
CARDAMOM CULTIVATION IN COORG. 
A correspondent of the Zropical Agriculturist, Ceylon, writes to the Madras- 
Mail :—\he familiar cardamom of commerce is the produce of a plant which 
is botanically known as Elettaria cardamomum, and is indigenous to the 
hilly parts of Cochin China, Travancore, Malabar, Coorg, Munjerabad, and 
Nugur. It grows abundantly, both wild and under cultivation, in the moist. 
shady mountain forests of North Canara, Coorg, and Wynaad, at an elevation 
of from 2,580 to 5,000 feet above sea-level. Jt is found truly wild in Canara, 
and in the Anamali, Cochin, and Travancore forests. On the lower range of 
the Pulney Hills, near Dindigul, at an elevation of 5,000 feet above the sea, 
it is systematically cultivated in the shade. There is also asmall Cardamom 
Island in the Laccadive group of atolls. The plant grows as a spontaneous. 
seedling in woods of high land, the cultivation consisting merely of clearing the- 
