76 The Andes and the Amazon, 



the day, or whenever milk is wanted. The operation is a 

 formidable one to these bull-fighting people. Stopping at 

 a hacienda near Pelildo for a drink of milk, we were eye- 

 witness of a comical sight. A mild-looking cow was driven 

 up to the door ; the woman, evidently the bravest member 

 of the household, seized the beast by the horns ; a boy tied 

 the hind legs with a long rope, and held on to one end of it 

 at a respectful distance ; while the father, with outstretch- 

 ed arms, milked into a calabash. 



Agricultural machinery is not in use. The first thresh- 

 ing-machine Quito ever saw was made in 1867 by some 

 California miners, but it remained unsold when we last saw 

 it. The spade is not known ; the nearest approach to it is 

 a crowbar flattened at one end. Hoes are clumsy and awk- 

 ward. Yankee plows are bought more as curiosities than 

 for use. Many a crooked stick is seen scratching the land, 

 as in Egypt, which the cattle drag by their horns. Some- 

 times a number of sharp-nosed hogs are tied together and 

 let into a field, and driven fi-om place to place till the 

 whole is rooted up. Corn is planted by making holes in 

 the ground with a stick, and dropping in the seed. The 

 soil and climate of Ecuador, so infinitely varied, offer a 

 home to almost every useful plant. The productions of 

 either India could be naturalized on the lowlands, while 

 the highlands would welcome the grains and fruits of Eu- 

 rope. But intertropical people do not subdue nature like 

 the civilized men of the North ; they only pick up a liveli- 

 hood. 



Spanish Americans, hke Castilians on the banks of the 

 Tagus, have a singular antipathy to trees. When Garcia 

 Moreno made a park of the dusty Plaza Mayor, he was 

 ridiculed, even threatened. To plant a fruit or shade tree 

 (a thing of foresight and forethought for others) in a land 

 where people live for self, and from hand to mouth, is con- 



