"Marrying" The

Vanilla

Busy Days in Society Islands

AN interesting phenomenon Is de scribed by Mr. R. Schultz, of Raiatea, Society Islands, in a letter written several months ago:— There was a profuse flowering of vanilla on the islands of Raiatea and Tahaa, during September. The flower ing period lasted for about a fortnight.

All available labour was employed, from daylight till dark, “marrying” (fertilis ing) the flowers by hand.

In the plant’s native home this is done by a small insect. Unfortunately this useful creature does not exist in the Society Islands, so the fertilisation must be done by hand.

The flowers open in the morning and only last a day, so that every flower not fertilised that day means one pod less when the time comes to gather the crop.

Some idea of the extent of the crop on the islands mentioned may be gath ered from the fact that on one planta tion, on Tahaa, about 40,000 flowers per day were fertilised. On a small planta tion, on Raiatea, three persons fertilised about 7.000 flowers in one day.

Referring to the slump in the copra market, Mr. Schultz said he was experi menting in an endeavour to find fur ther uses for the flesh of the coconut.

For his first experiment he used only nuts which had fully ripened on the trees. The flesh of these is sweet, and free from rancidity. It is put through a press, and the oil produced has been found to be excellent for frying purposes, or for use as salad oil. For his second experiment he grated some nuts, squeezed the “cream” into a bowl, and put it through his milk separator. It separated into thick “cream” and water. The “cream” proved excellent for making pastry.

Mr. Kenneth P. Emory, ethnologist at the Bishop Museum, Honolulu, has been given leave, to study for the degree of doctor of philosophy at Yale University.

Before leaving Hawaii, he completed his Tuamotuan studies, and made a final revision on the manuscript, “The Marae in Tuamotuan Religion”,