ON  THE  LEAVES  OP  THE  COCA. 
3T 
quent  collections,  and  also  have  less  flavor.  They  are  mostly 
consumed  on  the  spot.  All  the  other  gatherings  go  by  the  name 
of  mitas,  and  take  place  three  times,  or  exceptionally  four  times, 
per  annum.  The  most  abundant  harvest  is  that  occurring  in 
March,  that  is,  immediately  after  the  rains ;  this  is  the  mita  de 
marzo.  The  most  scanty  is  that  which  takes  place  at  the  end  of 
June,  or  beginning  of  July,  and  which  is  called  mita  de  San  Juan. 
The  third,  named  mita  de  Santos,  is  made  in  October  or  Novem- 
ber. 
The  watering  of  the  Coca  plantations  greatly  increases  their 
productiveness.  Forty  days  are  then  sufficient,  I  have  been  told, 
for  naked  shrubs  to  become  covered  with  new  leaves  ;  but  these 
leaves  are  not  equal  in  their  properties  to  those  produced  without 
irrigation ;  their  color  also  is  less  deep,  and  they  frequently 
blacken  in  drying.  Artificial  watering  is  needful,  moreover,  only 
during  the  dry  season,  and  the  cultivators  who  have  the  means 
of  employing  it,  realize  nearly  always  four,  and  sometimes  even 
five,  crops  in  the  year.  This  is  particularly  the  case  in  the  dis- 
tricts of  Irupana,  where  there  are  facilities  for  obtaining  water 
that  do  not  exist  elsewhere. 
I  have  examined  the  soil  in  which  Coca  is  cultivated,  and  al- 
most everywhere  have  found  it  composed  of  sandy,  argillaceous 
earth,  softish  to  the  touch  ;  it  originates  in  the  decay  of  the 
schists,  which  form  the  chief  geological  feature  of  these  moun- 
tains. The  soil  of  the  coca  plantation  is,  in  one  word,  formed  of 
what  we  call  primitive  or  normal  earth  [terre  franehe  ou  nor- 
male Q*  but  it  is  naturally  mixed  with  an  abundance  of  angular 
fragments  of  unaltered  schist,  which,  if  not  removed,  would  in- 
terfere with  the  growth  of  the  roots.  This  is  therefore  done  by 
the  cultivator  while  preparing  the  furrows  for  the  reception  of 
the  shrubs,  the  stones  being  employed  for  the  little  walls  before 
spoken  of;  indeed  these  little  walls  or  umachas  are  often  formed 
entirely  of  the  stones  thus  met  with.  I  need  hardly  say  that  it 
is  to  the  greater  or  less  perfection  to  which  this  preliminary  ope- 
ration is  carried,  and  to  the  labors  incurred  subsequently  in  stir- 
ring up  the  soil  from  time  to  time,  and  in  keeping  it  free  from 
weeds,  that  the  haeiendero  owes  the  abundance  of  his  crops.  The 
*This  is  also  the  soil  of  almost  all  the  virgin  forests  of  the  Andes. 
