392 



THE TROPICAL AGRrCULTURlSf. 



[Dec, I, 18S5. 



the March crop, the gathering porameuciug in Jan- 

 uary. The second is tlie Saint John crop. Iiegiuuing 

 in May, and the third is All Saints, collected in 

 October, and then the slu'ub is completely stripped 

 of leaves. Moist seasons produce the most delicate 

 leaves of finest quality, and droughts are very de- 

 structive to the crops, but as droughts in these 

 mountains do not extend over very larije districts, 

 the total crop is not often seriously varied from this 

 cause. The croi)S are gatheri.'d leaf liy leaf, chiefly 

 by Indian women and children, who stoop in front 

 of each bush and collect only the leaves which are 

 mature, in their aprons. Minister Gibb's authority 

 tells birn that the women are careful not to touch 

 the top of the bush, for, if this be tnuclied by man 

 or animal, '* it withers and dries up." ]M en visit the 

 women from to time, and take the gathered leaves, 

 in large sacks, to an enclosed yard, which is paved 

 with smooth iiat stones or slates, laid with very close 

 joints and kept very clean. These pavements are 

 so situated as to get the full Force of the sunshine, 

 and the first gathering of leaves is not brought to 

 them until they are very hot from the sun's rays. 

 The leaves are then spread thiidy over the hot pave- 

 ments, and being loosely raked aud turned from time 

 to time, are dry in from three to four hours in 

 favourable weather. Sometimes, however, they have 

 to be left overnight, and arc then liable to be 

 damaged liy dew. No gathering is done in very 

 cloudly or damp weather, and damage ouly occurs 

 from changes during the day after the collection 

 has begun. AVhcu dry, the leaves are packed at 

 once by means of a rude wooden press in square 

 bales, of coarse cloth, of a cesta or about twenty-five 

 pounds each. Two of such bales are put together 

 under another envelope, generally made from the 

 bark of the banana tree, aud such a package of 

 about fifty pounds is called a tambor, or drum, and 

 measures about 11 .-< 15 x 17 inches. 'Wlien these 

 parcels have to be sent across the coast range of 

 mountains for exportation, three are jiut together in 

 a tarpaulin-covered package of one hundred and fifty 

 pounds, and two of such packages make a load for a 

 mule or other pack animal for this transportation of 

 several hundred miles through mountain passes. Coca 

 is very easily damaged by the combined effect of 

 heut and moisture, and is, therefore, always stored 

 in cool, dry warehouses, and rarely handled or traus- 

 ])orted in damp weather or during the rainy season. 

 This rainy .season is from Jiinuary to April, and, 

 therefore, tliat stored on the west side of the coast 

 range is alone available for exporo during the rainy 

 seasou. "When exported it is said that it usually 

 starts in very good condition, and will reach its 

 destination in the same condition, if carried in a cool, 

 dry place. Such transportatiou is always stipulated 

 for in bills of lading, but the proper precautions are 

 generally neglected, aud hence the worthless condition 

 in which it is often seen. The only absolute 

 security for it in trausit is, therefore, to have it 

 soldered up in tin or ziuc, enclosed in wood, and 

 such parcels geuerally contain two tambores, or about 

 a Spanish quintal of a hundred i>ounds. Although 

 shipped from many ports along the whole coast, the 

 principal port in Peru seems to be Salaverry. the 

 port of entry of Trujillo or Truxillo, and the principal 

 port for liolivia is Arica, — MoUendo being now closed 

 by the civil war in Peru. 



Much of the difliculty in getting good coca during 

 the past year or two is attributed by all the corre- 

 spondence to the demoralization incident to the civil 

 war. 



Coca seems to be produced throughout the whole 

 Andean plateau from Ecuador to tho Argentine 

 Republic. The Peruvian Government is .said to record 

 and tax a proiiuciiou of over 1. 5,000,000 pounds per 

 auuum, and the Bolivian Government about 7,500,000 

 pounds. Of the latter quantity, Mr. Gilibs says, 

 about nS per cent is consumed in r>olivia; — .'Vrgentine 

 Kepublic aud Chili, each 15 per cent, aud Peru, 10 

 p er cent, while the remaining 5 per cent is exported 

 to the United States aud Europe ; thus giving about 



375,000 pounds a,s the export of Eoliria. As Peru 

 produces about double the (juantity credited to 

 Bolivia, it seems probable that about double tho 

 quantity may be exported, or, say, 750,000 pounds; 

 and if this, too, goes to the Uuited Stales and 

 Europe it would make an aggregate of about i,lL'5,000 

 pounds. 



The market report here is that one manufacturer of 

 cocaine iu Europe and one in the United States 

 hav<! each secured this entire cro]) for this year, aud 

 a third manufacturer has secured " the remainder. " 

 If these reports be true in the aggregate, cocaine 

 will be very plentiful, since l,0oVi,000 pomiils of 

 coca would yield at least 2,500 pounds of cocaine, 

 while oue-fourth of that quantity would probably 

 overstock the whole world. 



Mr. Phelps gives some important statistics in regard 

 to cost price. His data are obtained from the owner 

 of a hai'ienda, or coca plantation. This hacienda of 

 Seuor Don Carlos A. Gonzales Orbegoso. of Lima, 

 Peru, lies north-east of Lima, is .about thirty leagues 

 in extent, and jields about as good coca as is to be 

 found. On the estate it is sold in packages of 

 about fourteen ounces, each at 2.V to 3 reals. The 

 cost at Trujillo would be about 3o sols ot silver ppv 

 Spanish .|uintal of one hundred pounds. The cost of 

 tins and packing, aud of transportation to tbe seaport, 

 Salaverry, would be about (i sols additional,— total 

 ■11 sols, equivalent in bills on New York to 31'75 

 dollars per Sijauish quintal of one huiulred poimds, or, 

 say, 32 cents jier pound on .shipboard, with freight to 

 New York at about 1-50 dollar ))er cubic foot. 

 But the o^vner ipialifies this estimate by saying that 

 _ any unusual demand might put up the price. 



Bfinistcr (libbs says the price in Bolivia varies with 

 the supply and deniaud of different years from 1875 

 to 1884, between 8 and 20 "soft dollars "' per cesto. 

 The " soft dollar " is stated to be equivaleut to 80 

 cents, and the cesta or cesto is about twenty-five 

 pounds, so that the extremes of price seem to be 

 about 20 to (il cents per pound,— and this, by 

 inference, at the .seaports of Arica or Mollendo. the 

 I .shipping charges and freight still to be added. It 

 is retailed to the consumers by the small shops and 

 on the sidewalks, from the original packages or cestas, 

 at the rate of about 5 cents for twenty-one or 

 twenty-two grams, or three-quarters of an avoirdupois 

 ouuce, or about TOO dollar per pound— or by the 

 single pound at about SOc. 



The consumers of coca both in Peru auil Bolivia 

 are the native race.s, and among these the cousum(>tion 

 seems to be a nearly univcr.sal habit, and this habit 

 must have descended from the times of the Incas, 

 since I\Ir. Gibbs .says he has found buried with the 

 ancient Peruvians small quantities of coca and the 

 small earthen vise used with it to hold the lime or 

 potassa of the eoca-chewer. 



The whites of these countries seldom use c.ica 

 except as an infusion, and then the first water i.i 

 thrown away as being too strong. 



Mr. Gibbs is informed that habitual consumers of 

 coca know nothing of toothache, and have their teeth 

 in good condition to the greatest ages attained. 



The habit seems to be not uulilie that of chewing 

 tobacco, and the efltect obtained from it, — or supposed 

 to bo obtained, — is of a similar kind, although it is 

 doubtless a restorative or gentle nervous stimulant, 

 rather than a narcotic. 



There is no allusion in any of this voluminous 

 correspondence to any advance iu prices, ihie to the 

 late excitement aud demand, either in Pirn or Bolivia, 

 and it is therefore probable that the enorni'ius advarce 

 in prices here and in Europe has yielded enormous 

 profits to the holders, while the supply at these high 

 prices, in the New York m.arket, has been abundant, 

 though the quality has been very low. 



Looking hack over the past six mouths in the 

 lights id' all the trai\sactions of the market Hie writer 

 now believes the scarcity in this market to have heeu 

 a fictitious one, maintained solely in the inierests of 

 price and profit. And the reasons why a lictitiouH 

 scarcity could be maiutaiaed so long were, Hint that 



