Nov, 1, 1886.] 



THE TROPICAL AGSICtJLTURISI!*, 



53'5 



S. Date of first topping— July 24. Average number of 

 leaves left ou each plant to mature — ten. I did not 

 prime or pull ofif inferior leaves. 



9. Did not see any horn worm. 



10. Earwigs the only insects that preyed upon the 

 plants. 



11. Daily record of weather.— (Refer for this to di.strict 

 tables.) 



12. Costs of producing crop. — Mast have time to 

 answer. 



13. Date of cutting. — Commenced Sept. 3 and Sept. 22 j 

 am now proceeding. Mode of curing. — By fires in hop 

 oasts. 



14. Total yield in pounds of marketable tobacco per 

 acre, and in what proportions of quality.— Answer must 

 be postponed. 



I may add that I saw, on Monday afternoon, the 

 prompt enterprise which Mr. de Laune e.xhibits in 

 all his agricultural undertakings. The tobacco leaves 

 as they were cut were strung together in pairs, and 

 at once suspend from a rod supported by a newly- 

 made wooden horse of the right height. So the 

 leaves, some nearly two feet broad and over a yard 

 in length, cleared the ground, and when the rod was 

 completed it was carried away to a framework on 

 wheels, which latter when loaded was trundled off to 

 the ample oast house. This picking off the leaves 

 for curing, rather than struddle the whole plants in 

 pairs, seemed to me decidedly the best practice, as 

 the stalks require much more time and heat to dry 

 than do the leaves. — Field. 



PAEAGUAYAN TEA, 



From its earliest history, ye.i-ha mate, or Paraguay 

 tea (botanical name Ilex Parayuayensis), has gained 

 a greater notoriety than any other article produced 

 in Paraguay, and has been the chief source of revenue. 

 From it Fraucia and the two Lopezes gained their 

 enormous wealth, as did the Jesuit fathers before them. 

 Lopez I. annually exported about eight hundred 

 thousand dollars worth. The last year of his life the 

 export, of which he had the monopoly, amounted to 

 more than twelve million pounds, of which the value 

 was between five and six million dollars. The curing 

 of mate, which like all other active industries, was 

 almost wholly destroyed during the war, has revived 

 with the return of peace and is regaining something 

 of its former importance. Eleven million nine hundred 

 thousand and twenty-four pounds were exported in 

 1881, of which the official value was $996,752. It 

 was from the universal use of the leaves of this 

 plant in what was then known as Peru that Europeans 

 derived the custom of tea driuking. Paraguay tea was 

 introduced into Europe fifty years before the Chinese 

 herb was known there. It is said that the latter 

 gained the precedence by an opinion which some 

 physicians were hired to give by parties interested 

 in the traffic, that the Paraguay tea was injurious 

 to health. Quite as reason.able an explanation might 

 be found in the ditfereat business methods of the 

 parties engaged or interested in the traiiic from the 

 two sections of the globe. The plant is indigenous 

 to the entire northern part of the La Plata basin, 

 and grows spontaneously throughout a wider district 

 than the combined areas of France and Germany. 

 In no part, however, does it reach such perfection 

 SM in the locality from which it took its name. The 

 finest species is said to be found only in a com- 

 paratively small district lying north of Asuncion and 

 east of the Paraguay River. This variety would pro- 

 bably thrive under cultivation in all sections where 

 any species of the plant is found growing wild. The 

 increasing demand for it in European markets will 

 eventually incite to its cultivation. Washburn thus 

 detcribes a visit to the ycrhales: "April S. This 

 morning the work of collecting the i/erha commenced. 

 The process of curing was as follows : — A dry, level 

 place is selected and a circular spot some twenty-five 

 feet in diameter made perfectly smooth and hard, and 

 a layer of damp clay spread over it and stamped down 

 till it becomes a hard and smooth floor. "Within this 

 space I number of small trees are set into the ground 



in circles of about eighteen feet in diameter. The 

 tops of the trees are bent over and interwoven inta 

 each other so that an oval roof is formed. Then, 

 commencing some three feet from the ground, long 

 witlis are woven in longitudinally with the upright 

 poles, forming a sorb of open basket-work at the top. 

 The peons next go in search of the ycrba, which they 

 collect and bring to the camp. They take with them 

 a sort of basket made of thongs of raw -hide, that 

 they adjust on their shoulders and neck in such a 

 manner that they carry enormous loads. Provided 

 with this and a hatchet, the swarthy native plunges 

 into the woods to look for the tjerha. That most 

 coveted is the bush from six to ten feet high, which 

 he cuts down, and then, chipping off all the branches 

 and leaves, whips them into his basket. It is the 

 medium-sized shrub that is most sought. ,Sometime8 

 the bush grows to a tree of twenty-five feet or more, 

 but those are left unmolested when the smaller shrub 

 can be found. So soon as the peon collects as much 

 as he can carry he returns to the camp, and the 

 branches, having the leaves still on them, are passed 

 quickly through the blaze of a hot fire, and the leaves 

 are stripped off and thrown upon the ground. When 

 a sufficient quantity has been gathered in this way 

 the leaves are all taken up and worked into the 

 wicker-work of the oval structure before described. 

 They are worked in with great care and so as to be 

 of a uniform thickness over the whole surface. When 

 this is finished the floor beneath is swept out, and 

 a pile of wood that has long been cut and seasoned 

 is placed underneath and a fire kindled. The heat 

 soon becomes very great, and much care is taken that 

 it reaches all parts overhead alike, so that none of 

 the ijerha is scorched and none that is not completely 

 dried. To cure it thoroughly every particle of moisture 

 must be driven away, and as there are always more 

 or less of the stems of the wood of considerable 

 thickness it is not considered safe to withdraw the 

 fire until it has been in full flame for some thirty- 

 six hours. When the roasting process is finished the 

 fire and ashes are drawn out, the floor carefully 

 swept, and the now cured i/frha is shaken to the ground. 

 It is then gathered up and placed under cover ready 

 for packing. 



" The packing process is not the least singular of 

 the jjerha-cwxing operation. First the green hide of 

 a large ox is taken, and a strip about five feet by 

 two and a half is taken and sewed up with thongs 

 from the same hide in the form of a square pillowcase. 

 It is then attached to strong stakes driven into the 

 ground and a quantity of the yerha is put into it, 

 when a couple of stout peons proceed to press it 

 down with heavy sticks of wood in the form of hand- 

 spikes. It is a very slow progress, as the yerha is 

 beaten and hammered in until the mauls, though pointed 

 at the ends, can hardly make an indentation. When 

 as much has been forced in by this operation as possibly 

 can be, the open sides are brought together and laced 

 up with thongs of the green hide, and then it is 

 left to harden in the sun. What with close packing 

 and the contraction of the hide by exposure to the 

 sun, it becomes almost as hard as a rock. The bales, 

 called here tercios, usually weigh from one hundred 

 and fifty to two hundred pounds each." 



Numbers of these tercios may be seen at the various 

 ports along the river and being unloaded h&iovn ahnacen^ 

 in the towns. Small ones weighing an aroha (twenty- 

 four pouuds) are not uncommon, and those of a half 

 or even a quarter aroha put up in the same w;iy may 

 sometimes be encountered. The pounding to vyhich the 

 i/crha has been subjected to the process of packing 

 has reduced the dry leaves and twigs to a fine powder 

 of a pale-green co'lor tinged with brown, which is 

 highly aromatic. It is called yerha mate froni the 

 cup from which it is partaken of, and is more fre- 

 quently simply called a mate. 



To prepare the tea, which is the universal bever- 

 age of the La Plata countries and the unfailing 

 token of hospitalitv, the cup is half filled with the 

 powder, with or without sugar, the bomhilla inserted 

 and the cup filled with boiling water,— for which tho 



