Vanilla Culture As Practiced in the Seychelles Islands

Part 1

Bulletin No. 21, Division of Botany. PLATE I.

BULLETIN NO. 21. S. P. I., No. 2.

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, DIVISION OF BOTANY.

VANILLA CULTURE AS PRACTICED IN THE SEYCHELLES ISLANDS.

S. J. GALBRAITH.

WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 1898.

CONTENTS.

Page.

Introduction to Mr. Galbraith’s paper, by D. G. Fairchild 7

General conditions 9

Starting a vanillery 10

Preparing the vines for cropping 13

Pollination of the flowers 15

Curing the pods for market 17

Miscellaneous information and notes 21

Summary 23

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATE.

PLATE I. Page.

Fig. 1, vanilla in flower--some of the flowers already grown into small pods; fig. 2, vanilla in fair crop, on bars and posts under shade Frontispiece

TEXT FIGURES.

FIG. 1. Hand pollination of the vanilla flower 16

FIG. 2. Plan of curing house 19

INTRODUCTION TO MR. GALBRAITH’S PAPER.

By D. G. FAIRCHILD.

The following paper on vanilla culture has been prepared by Mr. S. J. Galbraith, of Mahé, Seychelles Islands, who was for some time associated with Mr. W. T. Swingle, agricultural explorer of the Section of Seed and Plant Introduction, in the preparation of a joint memoir on the culture and disease of vanilla in those islands.

As the second part of the report, which deals with the disease, has not been completed, it seems desirable not to delay longer the publication of this part, relating to vanilla culture, inasmuch as it is practically complete in itself.

Although the vanilla is a plant native to America, its culture is now carried on most extensively and successfully in Bourbon, Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar, and other islands lying in the Tropics in the Indian Ocean east of Africa, as well as in the Island of Tahiti in the South Pacific.

Part 2

The vanilla industry is a very important one in the Seychelles Islands, and Mr. Galbraith, himself for many years a successful planter, is in a most favorable position to write on the subject of vanilla culture.

The vanilla is a climbing orchid, the nearly mature pod of which is the part known to trade and that which furnishes vanilla flavoring. The plant grows wild only in the Tropics, and is so sensitive to cold that its culture can be successful only in regions absolutely free from frost.

The recent annexation of the Hawaiian Islands, Puerto Rico, and other tropical territory has added to our domain regions which there is reason to believe will prove admirably suited to the cultivation of this plant.

The competition of artificial vanilla, prepared synthetically by chemical methods, has not proved to be of any considerable importance. Indeed, the price of good vanilla has risen during recent years probably because of the ravages of disease in the islands where it is principally grown.

Prospective growers will be greatly aided in finding suitable climates and soil by Mr. Galbraith’s recommendations on these points.

The disease mentioned in various places in this bulletin is the one described in the second as yet unpublished part of the original memoir. It is of fungous origin, of great destructiveness, and spreads during moist hot weather very rapidly, frequently causing total destruction of large plantations in a month. During recent years it has seriously crippled the vanilla industry in Seychelles, Bourbon, and other islands of the Indian Ocean. This malady spreads with extraordinary rapidity where plants are crowded and allowed to intertwine, and for this reason Mr. Galbraith advises against close planting, though in regions free from the disease such culture might well prove more profitable than the methods here advocated.

Without going into details, it may be unhesitatingly affirmed from the results of Mr. Galbraith’s very thorough and painstaking studies that the malady is of such great destructiveness, spreads so rapidly, and is so difficult to control, that it would, if ever introduced, ruin probably forever the prospects of successful vanilla culture in our new territories.

It becomes, then, a matter of absolutely vital importance to keep the disease out of Hawaii and Puerto Rico if it is ever proposed to grow vanilla there.

No surer method of destroying in advance the hope of establishing this highly profitable industry could be conceived than that of carrying out the first thought that would occur to an enterprising prospective cultivator, viz, of sending to the islands of the Indian Ocean, where vanilla culture is most highly developed, for a stock of plants to use in starting a vanillery.

The only possible way of safeguarding our new domains against this disease is to prohibit absolutely the introduction of living vanilla plants except by the Government, and then only after inspection by a competent plant pathologist.

Fortunately vanilla plants may be multiplied very rapidly if placed under favorable conditions, and from a small stock of disease-free plants it would soon be possible to stock all the islands.

The Secretary of Agriculture proposes to secure such perfectly healthy plants for distribution to planters wishing to experiment with vanilla culture, and it is hoped that meanwhile, in the absence of any definite legislation on the subject, public opinion will prevent any promiscuous importation of vanilla cuttings.

As soon as the plants begin to yield pods the services of an expert should be secured to superintend the curing, for which specially constructed apparatus is required, and to report on the quality of the product.

There is every prospect for the successful establishment of vanilla culture in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, provided suitable soils and climates be found, and provided the disease be excluded. Certainly an industry which yielded to the small island of Tahiti in 1897 $172,295, to the Seychelles $246,600 in 1897, and to Réunion $560,563 in 1892 is worthy the serious attention of prospective cultivators. The desirability of publishing a practical paper on the subject at this time is emphasized by the conviction that both Hawaii and Puerto Rico offer suitable fields for the introduction of this industry.

VANILLA CULTURE AS PRACTICED IN THE SEYCHELLES ISLANDS.

By S. J. GALBRAITH.

GENERAL CONDITIONS.

Vanilla cuttings are said to have been first introduced into the Seychelles Islands in 1866, probably from Bourbon (La Réunion), where the plant was grown extensively after sugar began to fail, about 1850. Plantations were gradually established and extended by the multiplication of these original plants and from others subsequently imported, and for many years now the colony’s prosperity has largely depended on vanilla.

If kept free from disease it is a plant of extraordinary vitality; and here, where moisture and heat, its main requirements, are both ample, the sort of soil it is grown in seems to be of no great importance, provided that, if it be very poor, the roots are kept well supplied with manure. It is cultivated in the Seychelles from near sea level to 1,800 feet altitude, and does well (except for disease) at all altitudes between these extremes.

The rainfall is generally about 100 inches--that is in Port Victoria, which lies low; in the hills the precipitation is probably from 10 to 30 per cent greater; and in drier districts, away from high lands, where little timber is left, it must be considerably less. The fall is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year, but a dry spell, which is necessary to bring vanilla into flower, is to be looked for in July, August, or September, while the heaviest rains most frequently come in December. Even where rain has not fallen for some time the air is very moist, and for want of more exact information on this head it may be stated that, generally speaking, in the hills common table salt will deliquesce in a day or two if left uncovered. The range of shade temperature for day and night, from sea level to 1,800 feet, may be put at 90° to 70° F. The former is exceptional, the latter frequent, especially in early morning when the monsoon is blowing. Occasionally 68° may be registered, but seldom lower. Of soils, three very different sorts may be mentioned, in all of which vanilla does well here: (1) Rich vegetable mold, common enough in forest land as a thin surface skin, and also occurring deeper in valley bottoms. For a quick growth this is excellent. (2) A greasy red clay, also in fair quantity, on which vanilla makes good growth. (3) Coarse quartz sand, or gravel, apparently derived from disintegrated granite, not common, but met with in considerable patches here and there. Though so unpromising to look at, this is, perhaps, the best of all. It gives free drainage to the roots, and in wet years plants fixed on it are more likely to crop than those on closer soils, while with ample manuring they grow remarkably well.

The manner of setting out plantations in the Seychelles has undergone changes within the last twelve years. Formerly plantations were seen with the rows of vines planted so close together as scarce to leave room for workers to pass between them. The yield per acre under such conditions was sometimes enormous, but when disease once started in a vanillery thus arranged its destruction was rapid and complete, so this system has been mostly given up. Since the loss of so many close-lined plantations the distance between the rows has been increased. Living wood, i. e., small trees, are used as supports for the vines, these being festooned from fork to fork; but many planters have made use of hard-wood posts and bars, the former being notched on top and the latter laid in the notches, resting thus from 4 to 6 feet from the ground, according to fancy. Over these bars the plants are hung (Pl. 1), being looped up as growth is put on. Wire is sometimes also used instead of horizontal bars. It is much cheaper, but otherwise has disadvantages, notable among which is that it sways with wind and is liable to break the vines, the curvature being too sharp over such a small round surface. However, when plants thicken into a mass this last drawback mostly disappears.

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