THE BORDER VALLEYS OF THE EASTERN ANDES 83 



it takes five days to make the journey. The freight rate on coca 

 and sugar for mule carriage, the only kind to be had, is two cents 

 per pound. The national tax is one cent per pound (0.45 kg.). 

 The coca sells for twenty cents a pound. The cost of production 

 is unknown, but the paid labor takes probably one-half this 

 amount. The planter's time, capital, and profit must come out 

 of the rest. On brandy there is a national tax of seven cents per 

 liter (0.26 gallon) and a municipal tax of two and a half cents. 

 It costs five cents a liter for transport to Cuzco. The total in 

 taxes and transport is fourteen and a half cents a liter. It sells 

 for twenty cents a liter. Since brandy (aguardiente), cacao (for 

 chocolate), and coca leaves (for cocaine) are the only precious sub- 

 stances which the valleys produce it takes but a moment's inspec- 

 tion to see how onerous these taxes would be to the planter if 

 labor did not, as usual, pay the penalty. 



Much of the labor on the plantations is free of cost to the 

 owner and is done by the so-called faena or free Indians. These 

 are Quechuas who have built their cabins on the hill lands 

 of the planters, or on the floors of the smaller valleys. The dis- 

 position of their fields in relation to the valley plantations is full 

 of geographic interest. Each plantation runs at right angles to 

 the course of the valley. Hacienda Sahuayaco is ten miles (16 

 km.) in extent down valley and forty miles (64 km.) from end to 

 end across the valley, and it is one of the smaller plantations ! It 

 follows that about ten square miles lie on the valley floor and half 

 of this can ultimately be planted. The remaining three hundred 

 and ninety square miles include some mountain country with pos- 

 sible stores of mineral wealth, and a great deal of ''fells" coun- 

 try — grassy slopes, graded though steep, excellent for pasture, 

 with here and there patches of arable land. But the hill country 

 can be cultivated only by the small farmer who supplements his 

 supply of food from cultivated plants like potatoes, corn, and 

 vegetables, by keeping cattle, mules, pigs, and poultry, and by 

 raising coca and fruit. 



The Indian does not own any of the land he tills. He has the 

 right merely to live on it and to cultivate it. In return he must 



