Grow Spices?

Jap War Leaves Some Markets Bare

By Charles Reed. Apia,

Western Samoa

WITH the valuable spice trade of the East Indies almost entirely in the hands of Japanese invaders, the production of needful spices (nutmeg, clove, vanilla, pepper, ginger, mace, car domoms and chilies) will be largely on the down-grade.

The old maxim comes in here, “as one door closes another door opens”—and this door should be the opportunity of the Pacific Islands to engage in the spice trade. Where will you find more fertile areas than those of Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, Solomons, Hebrides. New Caledonia, and a hundred other of the large volcanic islands? Look at New Guinea, with every climate under the sun, and where all manner of spices, olives and fruits thrive to perfection.

One of the great advantages of the spice industry is that there is no expen sive machinery or plant required to cope with the business. With the exception of vanilla, there is no technical difficulty to overcome, and, even with this hardy orchid, it is easy enough to master the simple technique of the hand-fertilisa tion of the flowers.

This writer has grown these spices for many years past, and is a firm believer in small, intensive holdings of pepper or vanilla, as these bring greater profits than do the larger plantings of more bulky products, which cost more in transport and in storage, and occupy much greater space. Nowhere in the world has this writer seen better samples of the vanilla bean, of commercial pep per, and of nutmegs, than in these

islands of the Pacific. The rich, humus stocked soils are admirable for spice cul tivation.

Look at pepper. Is it not said in the famed Indies that a man with one acre of pepper under cultivation can afford a car, and take leisure; and the same can be said of the nutmeg, for this plant will crop for 100 years. Pepper is good for 70 years, and vanilla for sixty years.

Nutmegs are propagated from seed: vanilla and pepper, from yard-long cut tings, planted during the rains. Ginger, capsicums and other small spice crops should be planted between the lines of the other vines to bring in a profit from the first year’s operations.

Much of the data given in some of the older text-books on spices is misleading, especially in regard to the handling and curing of the vanilla bean. Actually, the process is simple, but requires care.

At the present time, labour is the main problem in some of the islands—due mostly to the natives gaining dollars more easily in other ways, than by engaging in agricultural pursuits; but this should not stand in the way of enterprising planters making a com mencement. This could be done by planting up small beds of spices as a nucleus for transplanting into permanent rows when labour becomes available.

Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Herrold, of Nadroga.

Fiji, are at present on holiday in Auck land. New Zealand. They say that the Allies’ victories in Papua and the Solo mons, and the consequent removal of the menace to Fiji—that, in the official view, had been close, until a short time ago—have strengthened civilian morale in the Colony. Fiji’s biggest worry at the present time is the high cost of liv ing, and wartime shortages of various commodities.