FARMING IN THE MONTANA. 



89 



no way detrimental to health ; and that without it the Peruvian Indian, 

 with his spare diet, would be incapable of going through the labor 

 which he now performs. The coca plant he therefore considers as a 

 great blessing to Peru. 



He relates that an Indian, employed by him in digging, worked hard 

 for five nights and days without intermission, except for two hours each 

 night — and this without food. Immediately after the work the Indian 

 accompanied him on a two-days journey of twenty-three leagues on 

 foot, and then declared that he was ready to engage in the same amount 

 of work, and go through it without food, if he were allowed an abund- 

 ance of coca. This man was sixty-two years of age, and had never been 

 sick in his life. 



Coffee is propagated from suckers or slips, and it is necessary to 

 protect the plants from the sun by cultivating the broad-leaved plantain 

 among them till they have grown up to about four feet in height. No 

 care, except an occasional cleaning about the roots, is taken of them 

 here, and yet the finest coffee I have ever drunk was from this district. 

 The bush grows to seven or eight feet in height, and is very beautiful 

 in appearance. It has a small and very dark green leaf, pure white 

 blossoms, and green, red, and dark purple fruit on it at the same time. 

 It gives its first crop in two years; but this is small in quantity, and 

 indifferent in quality. The bush is not in perfection until four or five 

 years after planting, and will ■ then last for an indefinite period. The 

 fruit has the size and appearance of a small cherry. Two seeds are 

 contained in each berry. Each seed is wrapped in a thin paper-like 

 envelope, and both together are covered with another, and then 

 surrounded by a sweet, pleasant-tasting pulp, which is covered with a 

 thin skin. Having no machines for getting rid of this pulp, the culti- 

 vators gather the fruit, dry it in the sun, and then soak it in water till 

 all the envelopes come off, except the paper-like skin surrounding each 

 seed. The seeds are again dried in the sun, and sent to market with 

 this skin on. It is worth eight dollars the hundred pounds in Tarma. 

 In Lima it generally commands twenty, and sometimes twenty-five 

 and twenty-seven dollars, on account of its great superiority to the 

 coffee of Guayaquil and Central America, which is generally used 

 there. 



" Cotton" may be planted at any time. It does not grow on a bush 

 or plant, as with us, but on a tree some eight or ten feet high. It gives 

 its first crop in a year, and will continue to give for three years ; after 

 which the tree dries up, and it is necessary to replant. It bears cotton 

 all the time; but this is not good nor gathered during the rainy season. 



