^"^juD"e!i888™"}     Cultivation  of  Cinchonas  in  Bolivia.  311 
missioners,  mutually  appoiated,  walk  between  the  rows  of  trees,  plucking  a 
leaf  from  each  one,  which  leaves  are  carried  to  the  house  and  counted  during 
the  evening,  those  of  worthless  varieties  being  rejected,  the  surface  and 
venation  of  the  leaf  constituting  the  crucial  mark.  The  trees  are  then  carefully 
attended  to  until  the  bark  matures.  So  freely  has  the  pollen  been  transported 
from  tree  to  tree,  that  however  fine  the  tree  may  be  from  which  you  gather 
your  seeds  you  will  obtain  from  those  seeds  trees  of  almost  every  variety 
known  to  that  section  ;  so  freely  do  they  hybridize  with  one  another.  Similar 
trees  of  the  same  age,  growing  together  may  mature  several  years  apart,  the 
difi'erence  of  maturity  being  indicated  by  the  peculiar  scaliness  of  the  bark. 
The  markings  are  very  simple  and  can  be  readily  observed  when  I  pass  around ' 
these  two  specimens.  I  ask  you  in  passing  them  to  take  both  of  them  in  your 
hands  at  once,  for  the  sake  of  comparison.  You  will  see  the  large  specimen 
which  I  hold  in  my  left  hand  has  not  only  longitudinal  fissures,  but  transverse 
cracks,  this  dividing  of  the  bark  resembling  the  tarsus  of  a  fowl,  and  hence 
called  by  the  natives  by  a  term  which  signifies  "  chicken-legs."  This  which  I 
hold  in  my  right  hand,  which  is  in  every  respect  as  good  a  variety  of  bark  as 
the  other  is  younger,  and -you  will  see  that  instead  of  cracking  transversely 
it  wrinkles  longitudinally.  This  mark  can  be  seen  in  a  young  tree  of  good 
variety,  or  it  may  indicate  an  old  tree  of  a  worthless  variety  ;  the  difi'erence 
being  that  the  worthless  variety,  however  old,  still  preserves  its  smooth  char- 
acter, while  the  good  variety  takes  on  this  roughness. 
While  you  are  looking  at  these  two  specimens,  more  or  less  of  the  same 
quality,  you  may  look  at  this  specimen  from  an  old  tree,  of  a  worthless 
variety,  which  is  perfectly  smooth,  and  of  a  light  color.  This  is  a  spurious 
bark.  An  experienced  hand  goes  through  the  plantation  as  a  marker,  and 
indicates  the  trees  to  be  cut.  The  cutter  follows,  makes  an  incision  through 
the  bark  about  three  inches  above  the  root,  and  another  one  two  feet  higher, 
connecting  them  by  a  longitudinal  incision.  The  bark  is  then  removed  in 
quills,  which  reduce  very  greatly  in  size  and  about  sixty  per  cent,  in  weight, 
in  drying.  The  sections  of  bark  that  I  show  you  are  four  feet  in  length.  Th  / 
bark  of  commerce  is  about  one  half  the  length  of  this.  We  will  take  the  two 
barks  which  I  show  you  here,  and  you  can  all  see  the  thickness  of  the  first 
specimen.  That  specimen  is  still  left  upon  the  wood,  so  it  has  not  shrunk  in 
drying.  If  it  had  been  removed  from  the  wood,  and  allowed  to  dry  in  the 
quill  form  it  would  have  contracted  in  size  so  much  as  to  have  been  as  small 
as  that  which  I  show  you  here,  if  not  smaller.  After  this  first  quill  of  bark  is 
taken  from  the  tree,  it  is  felled,  and  similar  quills  cut  from  above,  the  smaller 
portions  being  shaved.  Two  or  three  shoots  are  allowed  to  grow  from  the 
stump,  and  when  these  are  cut  five  or  six:  more  may  be  allowed  to  grow  for  the 
next  crop,  after  which  the  ground  is  replanted.  The  cutting  is  done  by  con- 
tract, the  price  paid  being  from  fifteen  to  thirty-five  cents  for  one  hundred 
pounds  of  green  bark.  Arrived  at  the  drying  sheds,  it  is  spread  upon  long 
narrow  stretchers  and  exposed  to  the  sun.  In  a  week  or  ten  days  it  is  dry,  and 
is  tied  with  strips  of  raw-hide  into  bales  of  from  sixty  to  sixty-five  pounds 
each.  This  is  the  shape  in  which  they  are  transported.  Sixty-five  pounds  is  a 
load  for  a  man,  and  two  of  these  bales  is  a  load  for  a  mule.  Men  however, 
usually  carry  them  over  the  worst  stages  because  mules  are  not  able  to  endure 
the  journey.    At  the  repacking  centre  it  is  closely  packed  to  go  over  the  sum- 
