168 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 1. 
in a bag, who, dropping a little of the compound in the 
hole, covers it with his foot; irrigation follows, and within 
a few days the appearance of the braird is totally altered : 
it is now green, succulent, and healthy, and grows w’ith a 
rapidity and vigour hardily credible. Just before the plants 
, cover the whole surface, the process is repeated and the 
cares of the husbandmen are at an end till, in due time, he 
gathers in his abundant harvest. Now, when it is considered 
that three bushels of this manure is sufficient for an acre of 
corn, growing to the height, of eight or ten feet, and that 
each clump of five or six such plants does not get more of 
it in all than about half an ounce in weight, its nutritive 
qualities must be allowed to be most wonderful, and far to 
exceed bone-dust, or any of the agriculto-chemieal dis¬ 
coveries in England. 
: Potatoes are grown in considerable quantities, but they 
I are never good, either the climate or the water disagreeing 
with them; they produce abundantly, but do not seem to 
! ripen, and are always watery and insipid, whilst those grown 
by the Indians on the skirts of the Cordillera, from 6000 to 
! 8000 feet above the sea, and brought here for sale, are 
j excellent. They are planted like the Maize in ridges, 
at all seasons indifferently, but the principal crop is put into 
the earth in June, and gathered in September, in an abun¬ 
dance proportioned to the guano and water it has received. 
, Capsicum, or Aji.— This pungent seed-pod is here 
reckoned an indispensable necessary of life; it is used, in 
some form, in all sorts of food, is eaten alone, with bread or 
Potatoes ; beaten into a paste, betwixt two stones, a plateful 
is on every dinner-table; whilst soup, stew, and salad all 
witness separately to its presence. Various kinds are 
cultivated, but the sort of most value, and the most pro¬ 
ductive of all, yields a long, coarse looking, and almost 
black pod. The plants are raised on a seed-bed sown in 
July, and planted out on previously well-watered ridges in 
October and November. When freely irrigated, for Aji 
requires more water than any other crop, and supplied with 
the necessary guano, the growth is extremely rapid; in 
April the first pods arc ripe, and there is a constant 
succession till the end of August; they are gathered as they 
mature, dried in the sun, and then packed up in sedge bags, 
holding an arroba or 25 lbs. each, for sale. The valley of 
Tacna produces but little more Capsicum than what is 
necessary for home consumption, the interior being supplied 
by the neighbouring valleys of Sama, Asapa, and ‘Lluta; 
some thirty years ago, the value of this crop in the province 
of Arica was reckoned at 000,000 dollars annually ! it can 
now be but a small fraction of this large sum, the scarcity 
of water in Asapa, the ruin brought on many estates by the 
devastations of the revolutionary war, the almost total 
breaking up of slavery, and the general poverty of the 
country, are the causes which have brought about the 
diminution. 
The utter ignorance of the people hero of the very first 
j principles of vegetable economy, is in nothing more con¬ 
spicuous than in the management of this, their most valu¬ 
able crop. The seed is sown as thick as it can lie on the 
surface, and the plants, of course, deprived of air, become 
; drawn and weak; nothing would be easier than to prick 
i them out on a succession bed, where they would soon 
acquire strength in both root and stem, but this simple plan 
is never thought of, and those to whom I have recommended 
it are too idle, or too prejudiced, to adopt the practice. 
When the seedlings are “ drawn” to the height of a foot or 
fourteen inches, they are considered sufficiently loin/ (not 
, strong) to plant out; and as it is evident that a great part of 
plants so raised must die under the heat of a tropical sun, 
recourse is had to the ingenious device of sticking two or 
three into the same hole! the consequences are self-evident: 
if one plant survives, it is still only a comparatively weak 
single-stemmed thing, with a bush of branches at the top, 
liable to be broken over by a puff' of wind, or the passing 
friction of any animal; should two or more happen to live, 
their energies are spent in a struggle with each other—they 
are jointly and severally deprived of the necessary air, the 
original process of drawing is followed by that of smothering, 
and a corresponding diminution in the produce is the 
necessary consequence. 
Onions. — This bulb is used in great quantities, it being a 
principal ingredient in the “ drape,” or stew of the country. 
I have never seen it raised from seed; in fact, the process 
would be considered too tedious a one by our “ cliacareros:" 
the only kind grown is what is called at home, I believe, the 
Tree Onion, which produces its succession in a bunch of 
small bulbs on the top of what in other plants would be 
called the flower-stalk. These bulbs are sown in ridges, 
four or five always adhering together, and, with guano and 
water, soon swell to a large size; but they are not considered 
in perfection until they have “shot." Previous to this time 
they are called “hembras,” or females, and looked upon as 
immature and insipid; when, however, the seed-stem has 
fully developed itself, and “a rung” as hard and as dry as a 
Bamboo cane occupies the heart of every bulb, they are 
dignified with the title of “Zebollas machos” (male 
Onions), and thought worthy of all acceptation. Nothing 
appears more ridiculous to an eye accustomed to the gardens 
of Scotland than a large bed of Onions in Teru; in the 
vigour of its growth, it appears as a mere jumble of immense, 
irregular clumps of green stems running into seed at a high 
pressure power; and when the water is withheld, for the 
purpose of ripening the crop, within a month it has all the 
resemblance possible to a field of half-burnt, sun-dried 
Canes. The chimps are seldom divided; they are generally 
in size larger than a man’s hat, and the tops being cut off, 
they are sent to market in their primitive state. The 
plant is grown at all seasons, but the superfine hard hearted 
ones are raised in greatest perfection from June till 
December. Of course, anything like a round or civilised¬ 
shaped Onion is never seen here, that being quite incom¬ 
patible with the presence of the “ rung.” I hope I have 
spoken on this subject with no undue asperity. I am and 
always have been fond of this vegetable; and it is no joke 
to have my teeth—the few the toothache has left me— 
continually exposed to lesion when I choose to venture on 
an Onion. 
Garbage.— Of Cabbage, only one kind is grown here; 
and if a specific name was wanting for it, I can think of 
none more apropos than the “Coarse Everlasting;” its 
heart, although not quite so hard as the walking-stick, is 
sufficiently so to justify the former epithet, and, as it does 
not run to seed, but is propagated by offsets from the old 
stem, roughly torn off, and as roughly stuck into the soil, 
the latter seems not misapplied. This plant affords one of 
the many instances of the power of a long-continued habit, 
over natural tendency. There cannot be a doubt that, like 
all other species of its tribe, it originally ran to seed in its 
second year, but the continual interference of man, in 
checking this propensity, by breaking off its branches, has 
at length, in the course of time, almost eradicated the 
principle, and it would now be no easy operation to force it 
into flower. 
(To be continued.) 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
*** We request that no one will write to the departmental writers of 
The Cottage Gardener. It gives them unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. All communications should be addressed “ To the Editor of 
The Cottage Gardener , 2, Amen Corner, Paternoster Row, London 
Destroying Caterpillars. ( Constantia ).—Any caterpillars that 
are not enveloped in a web may be destroyed with white hellebore pow¬ 
der. It is quite fatal to the Gooseberry Caterpillar. Caterpillars do not 
lay eggs, they are the larvae, or young of Butterflies and Moths. These 
lay the eggs. Putting gas lime over the nests of Ants, and frequently 
stirring the nests, will drive them away. We are sure that they do not 
eat seeds. 
Pheasant Malay Fowl. (S. K.)— Mr. A. Orton, 84, Bath Row, 
Birmingham, probably can aid you. 
Book. {A-would-be-Gardener). — The Cottage Gardeners* Dic¬ 
tionary will suit you exactly* Price 8s. fid. 
Caterpillar. (A Reader near Stamford). —All that we can say at 
present is, that the Caterpillar found on the ltose-tree is one of the Geo- 
metridee. It went into cocoon before we examined it. When the moth 
is produced we can tell more about it. 
Names of Plants. (J. A'.)—The yellow flower is Cheiranthus Marsh- 
allii; and the four-leaved plant is Paris quadrifolia , a rare native of 
Britain. 
London: Printed by Harry Wooldridge, Winchester High-street, 
in the Parish of Saint Mary Kalendar ; and Published by William 
Somerville Orb, of Church Hill, Walthamstow, in the County of 
Essex, at the Office, No. 2 , Amen Corner, in the Parish of Christ 
Church, City of London.—June 1 st, 1854. 
