The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-01-20
VANILLA BEAN.
ABOUT THE MOST
VALUABLE FRUIT GROWN.
How lit is Cultivated In Mexico
Rapid Growth Of the Pods
Curing, Drying and Send
ing to Market.

generally used that it is considered a
necessity, and it would be very hard
to find substitute for it. CONNER
cial extract of vanilla is obtained from
the vanilla bean, which is a native Of
Mexico, and is probably the most val
liable fruit grown, the best quality OF
Mexican beans often being worth
nearly their weight in silver.
The vanilla plant is climbing vine,
with a stem about as thick as an ordi-
nary lead pencil, covered with dark
green, spear shaped leaves. These
vines throw out small aerial roots
which attach themselves to the bark
of neighboring tree and appear to
obtain some nourishment from the sap
OF the tree. In their wild state the
vines entirely cover the branches of q
tree, and running from it into adjoin-
ing trees. form festoons and arbo1s so
thick as to exclude the rays OF the
sun and make progress through the
forest almost impossible. For great
many years no attempt whatever was
made to cultivate the plants, but as
the supply decreased from year to
year and the demand increased some
steps had to be taken to procure q
more adequate supply.
The vanilla vines blossom profusely
during March and April. The flower
is yellow and has a very agreeable
sweet smell. By far the greater num-
Der of blossoms wlther and fall off,
and the ones producing beans are q
very small percentage of the total
number. The beans grow very rapidly
for the first two months, and by the
first of July have attained their full
size, and from that time on grow but
little, if any. The beans, or pods, are
from six to twelve inches long, and
about half inch in diameter, and when
ripe are about the color of q banana,
and have very much the same appear
ance, except that they are little less
in diameter and somewhat longer.
Each vine yields about 100 beans, and
some vines have single branch that
bear twelve or fifteen pods.
From the first of July, when the
bean is a dark-green color, it grows
but little in size, turning gradually
q yellow color, until the last of Decem-
Der or first Of January, when it is fully
ripe and ready for gathering. The
pods are filed with minute black seeds
and a small quantity of pulp, and
when prepared for market become re-
duced to about one-fourth their origi-
nal thickness, are black in color, and
emit very sweet, agreeable perfume.
Although the beans do not become
thoroughly ripened until the first of
January, there is such demand for
them that the growers begin to gather
the crop in November. Beans gathered
before they are ripe cannot be as
readily cured, and the growers do not
get so much for them. They are OBJ
liged to begin picking them before
they are ripe, however, as if they do
not some one else would save the
owners the trouble of gathering them,
and they would thus be deprived of
the results of much hard labor and
care.
One OF the greatest expenses the
growers are put to is in properly
guarding their plantations, that their
crop, in whole OF in part, may not be
stolen by the natives. 1t is impossible
to make these people understand that
the beans are not growing wild, and
the property of any one who is willing
to gather them.
The curing of the beans is slow,
tedious process, and one requiring
great amount of care and attention.
For the most part the growers do not
cure their own beans, but sell them in
miscellaneous lots to curers, who en-
ploy experts for that purpose. The
total time consumed by the curing
process is about five months. The
bears as soon rs gathered are spread
out in the sun on black blankets, and
allowed to remain until they are quite
hot to the touch. They are then
gathered up and placed in sweating
box, which is simply a wooden box
large enough to hold all the beans.
This box is we'll warmed in the sun,
and it's whole interior is then lined
with blankets that have been out in
tho sun.
After the beans are in the box the
ends of the blankets are folded over
them, and other warmed blankets are
placed over and around the box. The
whole is then allowed to remain for
thirty six hours, by which time the
ripest OF the vanilla will begin to turn
black, and the box will have lost most
OF it's heat. The beans now have to be
spread out in the sun again, after
which they are again sHeated, and
this process continued four or five
times, until the beans are the proper
color.
AS the ripe beans turn black the
quickest, after each sweating the
whole lot has to be gone over, and the
ones which are black enough picked
out and placed by themselves. Great
care must be exercised in this process,
as, if they are very little oversweated,
it IS sufficient to reduce the weight
about one pound per thousand beans,
which would be.a great loss, and. as
the bean loses part of its color when
overdried, there is further loss OF
about 81 per pound on account of poor
color.
AS soon as the beans have been suffi.
ciently sweated AMI are OF the pr opel