FARMING IN THE MONTANA. 



91 



the Indians the fruit is generally cut green and roasted. It is propa- 

 gated from suckers or young bulbs, and gives fruit with such facility and 

 abundance as to foster and minister to the laziness of the people, who 

 won't work when they can get anything so good without it. 



I have frequently thought that a governor would do a good act, and 

 improve the condition, or at least the character, of the governed, who 

 would set fire to, or grub up every "platanal" in his district, and thus 

 compel the people to labor a little for their bread. 



The other fruits are pine-apples, of tolerable quality, which doubtless 

 would be very fine with care and attention; sour sop, a kind of bastard 

 chirimoya; and papayo, a large fruit, about the size of a common musk- 

 melon, with a green skin and yellow pulp, which is eaten, and is very 

 sweet and of delicate flavor. It has seed like the musk-melon, and 

 grows under the leaves of a kind of palm in clusters like the cocoanut. 

 There are a few orange trees, but no fruit. An orange tree does not 

 give good fruit under six years, and most of the haciendas have been 

 under cultivation but three. 



The only farming utensils used in Chanchamayo are short coarse 

 sabres, with which weeds are cut up, and holes dug in the earth in 

 which to plant the seed. 



This is not a good grazing country, though there were some cattle 

 belonging to the fort which seemed in good condition. All the meat 

 used is brought from the Sierra. It seems difficult to propagate cattle 

 in this country. All the calves are born dead, or die soon after birth 

 with a goitre or swelling in the neck. I had no opportunity of investi- 

 gating this; but I saw afterwards, in an account of a missionary expe- 

 dition made by an Italian friar, Father Castrucci de Vernazza, to the 

 Indians of the Pastaza, in 1846, "that cattle were raised with great 

 difficulty about Moyobamba, on account of the 'subyacuro,' a species 

 of worm, which introduces itself between the cuticle and cellular tissue, 

 producing large tumors, which destroy the animal." 



The houses on the haciendas are built of small, rough-hewn, upright 

 posts, with rafters of the same forming the frame, which is filled in with 

 wild cane, (cana brava,) and thatched with a species of narrow-leafed 

 palm, which is plaited over a long pole and laid athwart the rafters. 

 The leaves lie, one set over the other, like shingles, and form an effectual 

 protection against the rain and sun ; though I should think the rain 

 would beat in through the cane of the sides, as few of the houses are 

 plastered. The commandant of the fort was anxious to have his build 

 ings tiled, as this palm thatch, when dry, is exceedingly inflammable; 

 and he felt that the buildings of the fort were in constant danger from 



