324 AMAZOXIA AND LA PLATA. 



The Orange and Othek Agricultural Resources. 



Next in importance to maté is the apepu, or native orange, which De Bourgade 

 believes to be indigenous, and which is distinguished by a peculiar acid taste. Like 

 maté it grows wild in the forests, while the different varieties of the European 

 orange introduced by the settlers also thrive well. Every village, almost every 

 house, has its orange grove, and during the floods millions of the golden fruit are 

 sometimes swept down with the stream. The oranges, exported almost exclusivel}'- 

 from the riverside ports of Asuncion and Yilleta, represent but a fraction of 

 the annual yield, most of which polishes through lack of communications to 

 develop the industr^y. 



Nevertheless the official returns show that over 50 million oranges annually 

 pass through the chief ports of Paraguay, and this would be nearly doubled if 

 those were included which are disjjosed of from the small villages and estancias, 

 where no control is exercised by the custom house officers. To reckon up the 

 number of oranges that are consumed in the country, so as to include those that 

 rot on the trees or that are devoured by birds, monkeys, and other animals, would 

 be about as difficult as to count the grains of sand ou the sea-shore. Hardly a 

 Paraguayan could be found who does not consume from 20 to 30 oranges a day, 

 and yet there is no sign of diminution of the golden crop. What it would be if 

 cultivated systematically only imagination can conceive. But it is by no means 

 to the fiuit that the produce of the orange must be limited. Every part of the 

 tree has its special use ; the blossom can be distilled, essential oil muy be extracted 

 from the leaf, and the trunk is not to be despised as wood. 



The bitter orange, also, is by no means an unprofitable fruit. It is not edible, 

 but it yields several useful products. Besides the oxalic and citric acids, and 

 their compounds, which are extracted from its pulp, the peel furnishes several 

 medicinal syrups, and it is also a main ingredient in Curacao. The peel delivered 

 at the port of Asuncion fetches twenty-five shillings per 100 lbs., and a brisk trade 

 has already been developed. If, instead of sending the bitter orange-peel to distant 

 markets, it should be desired to utilise it on the spot, there would be required 

 only a very simple apparatus to produce the compound known to druggists as the 

 " Essence of Portugal," which uniformly commands a high price. This has not 

 yet been made anywhere in Paraguay.* 



Not more than l()ô,000 acres, or about the four-hundredth part of the whole 

 territory, has been brought under cultivation. The women, who do nearly all 

 the field-work, chiefly occupy themselves with maize, the consumption of manioc 

 diminishing according as the supply of bread stuffs increases. Wheat and rice are 

 also grown, but in insufficient quantities for the local demand. Although the vine 

 is seen trailing round the verandahs, there are no vineyards properly so-called. 

 Every peasant has his little sugar-cane brake, but utilises it only for the preparation 

 of a coarse unrefined sugar, or a very impure kind of rum. Both coffee and ground- 



* Varaywiy, p. 227. 



