220 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



yields nearly twiee as much su<:?ar as cane does in Louisiana, probably on 

 account of its more perfect growth, caused by irrigation. One sugar estate 

 owned by a Mr. Swain, a Scotchman, was conducted in the most 

 admirable manner, with improved machinery, which he had introduced in 

 spite of the most pf>rsistent opposition from native planters, who do not 

 appear to desire any improvements upon the old crude methods. Indeed, 

 agriculture in Peru appears to be at a very low ebb, and in no point of 

 view is there anything in that country to tempt an American farmer to go 

 there to settle. 



The agricultural labor of Peru is done mainlj'^ by Chinese under a sort of 

 limited sj^stem of slavery, and by native Indians, who are not much to be 

 relied upon, and who still entertain the hatred of their fathers toward the 

 race, that conquered and subjugated their country, and they have become 

 indolent, ignorant, drunken and wretched, living in hovels upon scanty 

 food, and growing nothing more than absolutely necessary for tlieir own 

 wants. 



Some of the food plants of Peru, I think, might be profitably introduced into 

 this country. For instance, Quinua, which grows high up the mountains, 

 above the level of the cereals. This in two or three varieties would 

 grow around Lake Superior, where cereals fail. I have seen quite a crop 

 gathered from plants in such a cold region that they only grew a few inches 

 high. This plant grows not unlike our common dock, the seeds being 

 small as mustard or similar seeds. 



There is also a kind of pulse, a small white bean, that yields 2,500 to one 

 planted; this, I think, might be profitably introduced into American agri- 

 culture. 



Maize or Indian Corn. 



" Maize or Indian Corn in found everywhere is Peru, except in the high 

 Punos, and presents itself in numerous varieties. I shall not enter into a 

 discussion of the question whether it is indigenous in Peru, but am able to 

 assert that it existed there at a ver}' early period. I found it in making 

 excavations among the ruins of Pachacamac and elsewhere, buried Avith 

 the dead, in places whei'e there were three layers deep, and where the 

 walls of structures, ruined centuries ago, had been built over the forgotten 

 graves. 



" On the coast the mai/.e flourishes vevy well, but ripens slowly, and is 

 liable to mildew. The ears are generally short, but with a small cob, set 

 round with more rows than ours. Tlie ordinary variety is yellow, but there 

 is also the white, and a stumpy variety of red and dark blue. The latter 

 is most frequently found in the ancient graves, wrapped up with the dessi- 

 cated bodies of the dead. 



" In the Puno it will not grow at all, except in the immediate vicinity of 

 Lake Titicaca and on the islands in the lakes. Here the stalks attain from 

 two to two and a half feet in height, and the ear, which is seldom more 

 than three inches long, starts from the ground close to the foot. The pro- 

 duction is therefore very small, and the grain is almost wholly used for 

 parching, for which purpose it is unsurpassed. The parched corn of the 

 Puno would make the fortune of the old woman with the apple-stand on 

 the corner, or the lame man who supplies the offices down town. This 



