May 



.885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



835 



No. 40,) the total annual produce of Coca in South 

 America at the present day is probably not loss than 

 4U,0U0,0UU II)., which, estimating the value on an average 

 at the low price of Is. per lu., gives a total of £2,000,000 

 sterling. The great virtues ascribed to Ooea have from 

 time to time attracted the attention of travellers, physicians 

 and chemists, but until quite lately its merits have iu 

 Europe been considered somewhat hypothetical. Now that 

 the value of its alkaloid, as a medicinal agent, has been 

 fully established, we may expect that further uses for 

 it will Lie found, and that a demand for it will arise 

 throughout the civilised world. 



MODE OF CULTURE IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



The Coca plant in Peru is raised from seed sown in a 

 small nursery, generally protected from the direct rays 

 of the sun by a thatched roof or rows of maize. Sowing 

 commences in December and January, when the rains 

 begin. After sowing, the seeds require to be regularly 

 watered, and may be expected to come up in from two 

 to three weeks. In the following year, when from 1£ to 

 2 feet high, they are transplanted to prepared ground in 

 the plantation, generally in terraces, where they are 

 placed in square holes about a foot deep, and with the 

 sides supported by stones to keep the soil from falling 

 in. Three or four are planted in each hole and allowed 

 to grow up together. In level ground they are planted 

 in furrows separated by walls of earth, at the foot of 

 each of which a row of plants is placed. The usual 

 distance apart is eighteen inches each way ; and the culture 

 extends up the steep sides of the valleys, as high as 

 8,000 feet where the mean temperature is 64° 68° Fhr. 

 " At the end of eighteen months the plants yield their 

 first harvest and continue to yield for upwards of forty 

 years" (Markham's ''Travels iu Peru and India," p. 

 235). The plants require to be very carefully weeded, 

 and if the rains are favorable, three crops of leaves may 

 be expected every year. The produce of an acre is 

 estimated by Weddell at about 900 lb. iu a favorable 

 season, but the average is doubtless less. The leaves 

 should not lie gathered till mature, at. which time they 

 are bright-green on the upper, yellowish-green on the 

 under, surface, break off easily when bent, aud have an 

 agreeable somewhat fragrant smell. They must be collected 

 separately and carefully, so as not to injurs the buds 

 that produce the following crop, aud to prevent their 

 beiug torn or bruised, which would impair their commercial 

 value. The harvest is greatest in a hot, moist situation, 

 but the best flavoured leaves are said to come from 

 plants growing in drier parts high up on the sides of the 

 hills. The green leaves, when picked, are carried iu 

 cloths or baskets to the drying yard, where they are 

 Spread out on woolen cloths or on floors formed of 

 slate-flags, and dried in the sun. Very great care requires 

 to be exercised iu the drying process, as, if dried too 

 rapidly, they get shrivelled and brittle and lose their 

 odour and green colour. On the other hand, if imperfectly 

 dried, they get dark in colour and have a disagreeable 

 odour and taste when picked. In small experiments 

 here I have fouud it better to dry them on a table in 

 an airy room, anil not iu the sun. Iu some districts it 

 is said the leaves, while yet green, are trodden down 

 with the feet, so as to give them a delicate flavour. 

 This may have the effect of producing a mild sort of 

 fermentation iu leaves which have beeu bruised. Well- 

 cured leaves are uncurled, of a fine green colour on the 

 upper surface aud greyish beneath. They have a tea-like 

 odour and pleasant taste, aud produce a seuse of warmth 

 when chewed. Badly-cured leaves are dark-coloured, less 

 fragrant aud devoid of the warm feeling when chewed. 

 When dried, the leaves are either stored in houses or 

 packed in sacks of cloth (cestos) liued with banana 

 leaves, each of which weighs about 20 lb. The size of 

 the packages varies iu different districts from 20 to 150 

 lb. There can be no doubt that the Coca suffers in 

 transit or when long stored in bags, and that it would 

 be a great improvement to pack it in like tin, lead-lined 

 chests, tea. Shuttleworth ('• Pharmaceutical Journal," 

 Vol. VIII, p. --'-. I says that •• in South America partic- 

 ular care is liken to procure the leaves in as fresh a 

 state as possible, and many writers have ascribed the 

 waul of effect 1 1 tin- use of old leaves. I have no doubt 



but ('oca deteriorates by age, as will also tea and most 

 medicinal plants'; but I am certain that it does not 

 become wholly inert if preserved with care.'' Dr. Squibb 

 (■' Pharmaceutical Journal," No. 739 of 1SS4, p. 145,) 

 observes: " Coca is well known to be a very sensitive 

 aud perishable drug," and again " very much like tea 

 in this and other respects, it, should be packed aud trans- 

 ported with the same care aud pains, in leaded chests 

 or in some equivalent package. It is very well known 

 that tea, if managed, transported, handled and sold as 

 t 'oca. it would be nearly or quite worthless, and there- 

 fore < 'oca, managed as the great mass of it is, must be 

 nearly all of it comparatively worthless." If Coca grown 

 in India is ever therefore to take an important place 

 in the European market, it must be dried with great 

 care, anil packed so as to preserve its virtues. In South 

 America not less than 8,000,000 of the inhabitants 

 habitually chew the leaf, aud deem it as much as necess- 

 ary as the people of this country consider the betel-nut. 

 As, until within the last few mouths, the consumption 

 of Coca for medicinal- and other purposes has been small, 

 it is probable that it will be some time before the supply 

 grown iu America overtake the demand for it which has 

 sprung up in Europe and elsewhere, owing to the wonder- 

 ful anaesthetic action that the alkaloid made from it 

 exercises, when applied to mucous membrane and other 

 tissues of the body. This alkaloid. Cocaine, was recently 

 sold in London at prices ranging from 2s. (id to 4s. the 

 grain, aud when it is mentioned that the leaves do not 

 on an average yield more thau 0'2 per cent, it will be 

 obvious that there is abundant room in the English 

 market for additional importations of the leaf, and good 

 prospects of liberal profits for the grower. It has also 

 to be repeated that the leaf is very perishable. After 

 being stored for five months in its native country, it is 

 said to lose its flavour aud to become worthless. Supplies 

 of the fresh article will always therefore be in demand. 



MODES or USING THE COCA LEAF IV SOUTH AMERICA. 



The Peruvian Indians masticate the Coca in combin- 

 ation with the alkaline ashes of the stalk of the quinoa 

 plant (Chenopodium quiuoatrs.) In other places, pulverised 

 quicklime is used. In Brazil the leaves are first dried, 

 aod then reduced to powder in a wooden mortar along 

 with the ashes of a plant. Au Indian usually partakes 

 of Coca three times' a day, and consumes altogether about 

 three ounces of the leaves daily. As it is chewed, it 

 emits a grateful fragrance and promotes the How of 

 saliva ; aud according to Markham, "its properties are to 

 enable a greater amount of fatigue to be borne with less 

 nourishment, and to prevent the occurrence of difficulty 

 of respiration in ascendiug steep mountain sides." It is 

 also sometimes infused like tea, and the beverage drunk ; 

 and Mr. Holmes, of the Pharmaeeutial Society's Museum, 

 informs me that a nice liqueur is prepared from the 

 fresh leaves in Bolivia. A fluid extract, prepared in 

 South America from the fresh leaves, has for sonic time 

 been imported into England. 



PROPERTIES AND USES. 



Coca has long been regarded as a stimulant of the 

 nervous system aud sustaining agent, and the poet 

 Cowley who lived in the middle of the 17th century, 

 puts the following words into the mouth of au Indian 

 Chief who is addressing the heathen goddess Venus : — 

 "Our Variocha first his Coca sent 

 Endow'd with leaves of wondrous nourishment, 

 Whose juice suce'd in, and to the stomach taVn 

 Long hunger aud loiig labor can sustain ; 

 From which our faint and weary bodies find 

 More succour, more they clear the drooping mind 

 Thau can your Bacchus and your Ceres joined. 

 The Quitoita with this provision stor'd 

 Can pass the vast and c'oudy Andes o'er." 

 My friend, Dr. Mautegazzo of Florence, who visited 

 Madras a few years ago, on a scientific expedition, 

 always carried a supply of Coca wherever he unit. 

 He became acquainted with it while resident in South 

 America, and carefully investigated its properties. 

 According to him, when taken in excessive doses it causes 

 delirium, hallucinations, and ultimately congestion of the 

 brain. In full doses it stimulates the heart and reepir- 

 ation and increases the t< nqu-ratiire of the body. When 



