LONCHOCARPUS, DERRIS, AND PYRETHRUM CULTIVATION 9 
trial culture by agricultural experiment stations in several Caribbean 
and Central American countries, British Malaya, and the Philippine 
Islands. It seems plausible that other tropical countries have also 
secured living plants for local study. As yet, however, there are no 
accounts of successful commercial production outside of South Amer- 
ica. Lonchocarpus introductions made by agricultural experiment 
stations in Puerto Rico, Guatemala, and Nicaragua have not grown 
well, but as yet it has not been determined whether this was due to 
sienificant differences in climate, soils, and latitude. 
Since the value and technique of cultivating the plant are little 
known, except in Peru and a few villages in Brazil and Venezuela, 
many years may pass before lonchocarpus becomes established as a 
commercial crop in any other tropical country. If it is eventually 
determined, however, that the plant has a cultivation range approxi- 
mating that of derris, lonchocarpus may replace derris to some extent 
since, “under present cultural methods, the labor requirements for 
producing equivalent amounts of rotenone are less in the case of 
lonchocarpus. 
CULTIVATION PRACTICES 
Field Preparation 
Present methods of lonchocarpus culture are those developed 
through trial and error by Amazon Indians and riverbank settlers who 
sought to provide themselves with adequate supplies of fish poison. 
The general procedure from land clearing to harvest 1s still practically 
the same for a common backyard barbascal as for a commercial 
plantation of several hundred acres. Both are often established on 
land that has previously been wooded, since in the rain-forest areas of 
the Amazon Basin the task of opening up new clearings in the forests 
is considered easier and more profitable than that of reclaiming old 
Figure 5.—Field after flash burn and ready for planting; upper Peruvian Amazon. 
