724 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, i8S6. 



hind. "Within this four or five thousantl feet, then, 

 lie the cocales of Bolivia. No description can con- 

 vey a perfect idea of the steepness of this luxuriant 

 elope. Travel, entirely by ridiiig--^nimals, is extremely 

 difficult. There are only occasional .places where we 

 can readily leave the road, and here plantations are 

 establiiihed. The hedge of coffee-plants at the roadside 

 proves on examination to be the uppermost row of a 

 plantation; and as we peer down among the shrubs 

 we mrirvel that anyone can preserve his footing while 

 cultivating or collecting tiie coffee. The scenery is 

 of course magnificent, and of a different type, I .should 

 think, from that of any other part of the world. The 

 mountains are too young to have lost to a great extent 

 their ragged outline, yet softness is imparted by the 

 richness of the vegetAtion. A\''o stantl among the 

 cnca-plants and distinctly see another cocal nearlj four 

 thousand feet helow us. 



As there is no better guide to the agricultural rapaci- 

 ties of a country than its native plants, I will mention 

 the characteristic classes. At the pass, with an alti- 

 tude of about thirteen thousand feet, we have but 

 little vegetation, — this low and mat-like, to escape 

 the cold and the winds. Crossing, Boon after, a spur 

 having ;in elevation of one or two thousand feet less, 

 we meet with several rientianacen?, notably a Iltifrtiia, 

 believed to be //. Hnthrockii, Gray, of New Mexico. 

 Hero, also are some shrubs in Acanthace^j and Big- 

 noniace;e. At nine thousand feet we begin to find 

 orchids and calceolarias, with some small trees in 

 Melastoniacenj. At eight thousand feet we meet with 

 our first tree-ferns; the timber-trees become (juite large, 

 aud J»egoniaH begin to make their appearance. From 

 this point the vegetation begins to assume a really 

 tropical aspect. AVe find many species of calceolaria, 

 fuchsia, and Amaryllidaceiu, while the variety of orcliids 

 Slid ferns is quite bewildering. At six thousand five 

 hundred feet we sec the first palms, and the forest- 

 trees become buttressed giants, staggering under their 

 loads of vines and climbing aroids and ferns, and their 

 branches covered with Bromeliaceie, orchids, and other 

 parasites. Seventy parasites have been counted upon 

 a siugle fallen tree. 



The cultivated plants of the coca district are coffee, 

 rice, cacao, sugar cane, tobacco, maize, cotton (the 

 arborescent species), sweet potatoes, yuccas, and the 

 ordinary garden vegetables. The principal fruits are 

 oranges, bananas, coooanuts, leuions (sweet and sour), 

 citrons, grapes, chirimoyas, alligator pears, tuinba^, 

 poratigranates, grenadillas, figs, papayas, lukmas, melons, 

 and pineapples, the last just introduced. 



The soil in .such a broken country is of course 

 very diversified, ranging from a very light decom- 

 posed shale or standstone to a heavy blue or ehietly 

 yellow clay. 



The rainy season begins in October, and continues until 

 May or June. During this time the rains are copious 

 and almost constant. During the succeeding two 

 months there is scarcely a drop of rain, aud during 

 the next two there are only occasional showers. 



Such are the couilitions under which the coca grows 

 in this section. 



"When we corae now to consider the methods of 

 ciiUivarion here adopted, we must be cautious about 

 Bccepiing them as the best, m«'rely because they are 

 generally followed here. It is to be remembered that 

 the Bolivian syfttem of agriculture has not received the 

 attention that it should have had, and that it ia 

 very probable that reforms might be introduced in 

 present methods. 



Nor iis it propfr to proceed coflccrning coca-culture 

 without a few words concerning what is meant by 

 the '* best (inality" of ooc-i-lfaves. To a manufacturing 

 chemist t)ie best quality would mean the quality that 

 would yield the largest percentage of cry.-'tallizable 

 rocaine, obtainable in the easiest manner, while ihe 

 same coca might be considered for domestic consump- 

 tion a,« representing one of the lower grades. It is 

 highly probable that t;he amount of cocaine forms no 

 element in the Indian's estimate of the quality of coca, j 

 uo more than the percentage of nicotine establibbes I 

 the quality of a particular grade of tobacco, Ooc** I 



leaves are classed in general by the Indians as "hajas 

 dulces " (sweet leaves) and '* hajas amargas " (bitter 

 leaves). The former are made sweet by the abundance 

 of alkaloids other than cocaine. "NMiile it is true that 

 a greater abundance of those alkaloids is usually 

 accompanied by a larger percentage of cocaine also, 

 yet the vai-iation in the amount of the latter is not 

 so great .«is in the former; so that while in the sweet 

 leaves the bitter taste of the cocaine is masked by 

 the presence of the other alkaloids, in the bitter leaves 

 its flavour is the predominant one. The presence, then, 

 of these sire< t nlkaloidi^y as we may call them, trans- 

 lating the simple and expressive term of the ludians, 

 determines the domestic value of the coca, and all 

 that is known of the best methods of cultivation is 

 based on the production of the highest percentage of 

 these alkaloids.* Experience may determine that for 

 manufacturingpurposes a very different line of principles 

 of culture should be followed. 



I have made a large number of assays tending towards 

 elevations, soils, e.^posures, seasons, ages of plants, and 

 of leaves, different varieties, wild and domestic, differ- 

 ent parts of the plant, and various modes of drying and 

 packing. The results will be embodied in a future 

 monograph, mere passing references being made to 

 them for the present, I have about concluded that, the 

 percentage of the sweet alkaloids varies inversely as 

 the amount and continuousness of moisture that the 

 plant reeeivee. Thus, the Peruvian, Ecuadorian, and 

 Brazilian coca, which, as I have stated, is much more 

 copiously and regularly watered than the Bolivian, is 

 markedly inferior, so that Bolivia regularly exports 

 about one-eighth of her crop to those countries. I am 

 inclined to think that the greater brea<lth and thinness. 

 of the northern leaf may be partly due to the greater 

 water supply and the couse(|uent greater degree of 

 evaporation. Again, the Indian always seeks the coca 

 grown at the higher elevations, where the humidity 

 is much less and more irregular than in the districts 

 along the rivers. AVe are thus obligefi, for reasons 

 to be elaborated in the future, to regard these alkal- 

 oids as preserving a sort of a balance of moisture, by 

 which the plant stores up during the wet weather a 

 concentrated supply of water, which may be very slowly 

 yieldt^d up during a time of need. 



Having thus chosen a high altitude, the next thing 

 is to select a soil. A rivalry exists between a yellow 

 clay and a hill-side soil rich in vegetable matter. My 

 assays have yielded the bewt results (as to total 

 alkaloids) from soils of the latter class, and I am 

 inclined to think that those who prefer the former 

 soil do so because it yields a somewhat larger crop. 



The ground for the nnrsery-bed is prepared during 



the latter part of the dry season by breaking it up 



1 very thoroughly lo the depth of a foot or more. The 



I fruits mature during the early part of the rainy season, 



I December and January. They arc red, and consist of 



[ a fleshly outer portion and a shell-like inner portion, 



I whieli encloses the single seeJ. These people suppose 



; that the germ cannot escape from the shell if planted 



I in its nnfural condition, and they have continued for 



hundretis of years to dep-sit the seeds as soon as 



1 gathered in a shaded place, in htyer-* an inch or more 



I deep, a'ld ciaviciI with a thin I lyer of decaying leaves 



or similar s)d)-'taitre. The beat getierated by the 



! dccompositipu of the fleshy pericarp serves to induce 



germiuation. and the embryo bursts from its bony 



j covering. This gnwth unites them in from eight to 



I fourteen rl.iys into a .so!id mass, whirh i.** broken up 



\ into smnl pieces and planted in furrows in the nursery. 



In this process very many of the sprouts are broken 



' off and the plants destroyed. Mr. I.ohse has adopted 



' the pl.n! of ."towing the seeds broadca.-^t a« soon a."* 



gath('rid, atid rovpilng with a little earth, or, better, 



a layer oT biin;ina le;t*'os ur drc.-iyhig vegetable matter. 



I Germination rOi(uirei from eight. (/> twelve day,-^ Kmger, 



but all the pbuits arc saveil. In cither case a covering 



of brush or straw must be placed over the uur.seiy. 



f It is desirable that there should be a more 

 precise definition of the peculiarities here referred 

 to,— Kd. Ph.J. 



