CHAPTER VII.THE CULTIVATION OF COCA.[23]
The most recent account of the cultivation of Coca is given by Henry H. Rusby, M.D., who, for more than two months, was engaged in the study of the Coca plantand its products in the districts of Bolivia which produce the best quality of leaves. He says:—
“For the details concerning cultivation here presented I am chiefly indebted to Mr. Oscar Lohse, one of the most intelligent cultivators in this country, and proprietor of the Finca of San Antonio, two leagues from the town of Caroica, Yungas.“The district of Caroica may be considered as fitly representing the remainder of Yungas, and Yungas as representing the principal Coca districts of this republic. The conditions of soil and climate may be briefly stated. Proceeding eastward from La Paz, itself somewhat more than ten thousand feet[24]above the sea, for a distance of four or five leagues, we reach the summit of the pass over the easternmost cordillera of the Andes, this cordillera having an average elevation in this immediate district of perhaps sixteen thousand feet. This ridge, always more or less snow-covered, cuts off a large portion of the westward-bound clouds, which are either precipitated in the form of rain before reaching the summit, or arriving there, are deposited in the form of snow, and then returned by means of rivulets to the valleys, chiefly of the eastern slope. It should be noted that in Northern Peru and Ecuador this cordillera is higher than here, so that the eastern slope in those regions is more profusely and regularly watered than here. From this pass, had we a direct road, we could travel in half a day, so steep is the descent, to the banks of the Caroica River, having an altitude of only two thousand four hundred feet. When we have descended to six thousand four hundred feet we should meet with our first Coca plantations, and after passing the two thousand foot level we should have left them principally or entirely behind. Within this four or five thousand feet, then, lie the cocales of Bolivia. No description can convey a perfect idea of the steepness of this luxuriant slope. Travel, entirely by riding-animals, is extremely difficult. There are only occasional places where we can readilyleave the road, and here plantations are established. The hedge of coffee-plants at the roadside proves on examination to be the uppermost row of a plantation; and as we peer down among the shrubs we marvel that anyone can preserve his footing while cultivating or collecting the coffee. The scenery is, of course, magnificent, and of a different type, I should think, from that of any other part of the world. The mountains are too young to have lost to a great extent their ragged outline, yet softness is imparted by the richness of the vegetation. We stand among the coca plants and distinctly see another cocal nearly four thousand feet below us.“The cultivated plants of the coca district are coffee, rice, cacao, sugar cane, tobacco, maize, cotton (the arborescent species), sweet potatoes, yuccas, and the ordinary garden vegetables. The principal fruits are oranges, bananas, cocoanuts, lemons (sweet and sour), citrons, grapes, chirimoyas, alligator pears, tumbas, pomegranates, grenadillas, figs, papayas, lukmas, melons, and pineapples, the last just introduced.“The soil in such a broken country is, of course, very diversified, ranging from a very light decomposed shale or sandstone to a heavy blue or chiefly yellow clay.“The rainy season begins in October, and continues until May or June. During this time the rains are copious and almost constant. During the succeeding two months there is scarcely a drop of rain, and during the next two there are only occasional showers.“Such are the conditions under which the Coca grows in this section.“When we come now to consider the methods of cultivation here adopted, we must be cautious about accepting them as the best, merely because they are generally followed here. It is to be remembered that the Bolivian system of agriculture has not received the attention that it should have had, and that it is very probable that reforms might be introduced in present methods.“Nor is it proper to proceed concerning Coca-culture without a few words concerning what is meant by the ‘best quality’ of Coca-leaves. To a manufacturingchemist the best quality would mean the quality that would yield the largest percentage of crystallizable cocaine, obtainable in the easiest manner, while the same Coca might be considered for domestic consumption as representing one of the lower grades. It is highly probable that the amount of cocaine forms no element in the Indian’s estimate of the quality of Coca, no more than the percentage of nicotine establishes the quality of a particular grade of tobacco. Coca-leaves are classed in general by the Indians as ‘hajas dulces’ (sweet leaves) and ‘hajas amargas’ (bitter leaves). The former are made sweet by the abundance of alkaloids other than cocaine. While it is true that a greater abundance of these alkaloids is usually accompanied by a larger percentage of cocaine also, yet the variation in the amount of the latter is not so great as in the former; so that while in the sweet leaves the bitter taste of the cocaine is masked by the presence of the other alkaloids, in the bitter leaves its flavour is the predominant one. The presence, then, of thesesweet alkaloids, as we may call them, translating the simple and expressive term of the Indians, determines the domestic value of the Coca, and all that is known of the best methods of cultivation is based on the production of the highest percentage of these alkaloids.[25]Experience may determine that for manufacturing purposes a very different line of principles of culture should be followed.“I have made a large number of assays tending towards elevations, soils, exposures, seasons, ages of plants, and of leaves, different varieties, wild and domestic, different parts of the plant, and various modes of drying and packing. The results will be embodied in a future monograph, mere passing references being made to them for the present. I have about concluded that the percentage of the sweet alkaloids varies inversely as the amount and continuousness of moisture that the plant receives. Thus, the Peruvian, Ecuadorian, and Brazilian Coca, which, as I have stated, is much more copiously and regularly watered than the Bolivian, ismarkedly inferior, so that Bolivia regularly exports about one-eighth of her crop to those countries. I am inclined to think that the greater breadth and thinness of the northern leaf may be partly due to the greater water-supply and the consequent greater degree of evaporation. Again, the Indian always seeks the Coca grown at the higher elevations, where the humidity is much less and more irregular than in the districts along the rivers. We are thus obliged, for reasons to be elaborated in the future, to regard these alkaloids as preserving a sort of a balance of moisture, by which the plant stores up during the wet weather a concentrated supply of water, which may be very slowly yielded up during a time of need.
“For the details concerning cultivation here presented I am chiefly indebted to Mr. Oscar Lohse, one of the most intelligent cultivators in this country, and proprietor of the Finca of San Antonio, two leagues from the town of Caroica, Yungas.
“The district of Caroica may be considered as fitly representing the remainder of Yungas, and Yungas as representing the principal Coca districts of this republic. The conditions of soil and climate may be briefly stated. Proceeding eastward from La Paz, itself somewhat more than ten thousand feet[24]above the sea, for a distance of four or five leagues, we reach the summit of the pass over the easternmost cordillera of the Andes, this cordillera having an average elevation in this immediate district of perhaps sixteen thousand feet. This ridge, always more or less snow-covered, cuts off a large portion of the westward-bound clouds, which are either precipitated in the form of rain before reaching the summit, or arriving there, are deposited in the form of snow, and then returned by means of rivulets to the valleys, chiefly of the eastern slope. It should be noted that in Northern Peru and Ecuador this cordillera is higher than here, so that the eastern slope in those regions is more profusely and regularly watered than here. From this pass, had we a direct road, we could travel in half a day, so steep is the descent, to the banks of the Caroica River, having an altitude of only two thousand four hundred feet. When we have descended to six thousand four hundred feet we should meet with our first Coca plantations, and after passing the two thousand foot level we should have left them principally or entirely behind. Within this four or five thousand feet, then, lie the cocales of Bolivia. No description can convey a perfect idea of the steepness of this luxuriant slope. Travel, entirely by riding-animals, is extremely difficult. There are only occasional places where we can readilyleave the road, and here plantations are established. The hedge of coffee-plants at the roadside proves on examination to be the uppermost row of a plantation; and as we peer down among the shrubs we marvel that anyone can preserve his footing while cultivating or collecting the coffee. The scenery is, of course, magnificent, and of a different type, I should think, from that of any other part of the world. The mountains are too young to have lost to a great extent their ragged outline, yet softness is imparted by the richness of the vegetation. We stand among the coca plants and distinctly see another cocal nearly four thousand feet below us.
“The cultivated plants of the coca district are coffee, rice, cacao, sugar cane, tobacco, maize, cotton (the arborescent species), sweet potatoes, yuccas, and the ordinary garden vegetables. The principal fruits are oranges, bananas, cocoanuts, lemons (sweet and sour), citrons, grapes, chirimoyas, alligator pears, tumbas, pomegranates, grenadillas, figs, papayas, lukmas, melons, and pineapples, the last just introduced.
“The soil in such a broken country is, of course, very diversified, ranging from a very light decomposed shale or sandstone to a heavy blue or chiefly yellow clay.
“The rainy season begins in October, and continues until May or June. During this time the rains are copious and almost constant. During the succeeding two months there is scarcely a drop of rain, and during the next two there are only occasional showers.
“Such are the conditions under which the Coca grows in this section.
“When we come now to consider the methods of cultivation here adopted, we must be cautious about accepting them as the best, merely because they are generally followed here. It is to be remembered that the Bolivian system of agriculture has not received the attention that it should have had, and that it is very probable that reforms might be introduced in present methods.
“Nor is it proper to proceed concerning Coca-culture without a few words concerning what is meant by the ‘best quality’ of Coca-leaves. To a manufacturingchemist the best quality would mean the quality that would yield the largest percentage of crystallizable cocaine, obtainable in the easiest manner, while the same Coca might be considered for domestic consumption as representing one of the lower grades. It is highly probable that the amount of cocaine forms no element in the Indian’s estimate of the quality of Coca, no more than the percentage of nicotine establishes the quality of a particular grade of tobacco. Coca-leaves are classed in general by the Indians as ‘hajas dulces’ (sweet leaves) and ‘hajas amargas’ (bitter leaves). The former are made sweet by the abundance of alkaloids other than cocaine. While it is true that a greater abundance of these alkaloids is usually accompanied by a larger percentage of cocaine also, yet the variation in the amount of the latter is not so great as in the former; so that while in the sweet leaves the bitter taste of the cocaine is masked by the presence of the other alkaloids, in the bitter leaves its flavour is the predominant one. The presence, then, of thesesweet alkaloids, as we may call them, translating the simple and expressive term of the Indians, determines the domestic value of the Coca, and all that is known of the best methods of cultivation is based on the production of the highest percentage of these alkaloids.[25]Experience may determine that for manufacturing purposes a very different line of principles of culture should be followed.
“I have made a large number of assays tending towards elevations, soils, exposures, seasons, ages of plants, and of leaves, different varieties, wild and domestic, different parts of the plant, and various modes of drying and packing. The results will be embodied in a future monograph, mere passing references being made to them for the present. I have about concluded that the percentage of the sweet alkaloids varies inversely as the amount and continuousness of moisture that the plant receives. Thus, the Peruvian, Ecuadorian, and Brazilian Coca, which, as I have stated, is much more copiously and regularly watered than the Bolivian, ismarkedly inferior, so that Bolivia regularly exports about one-eighth of her crop to those countries. I am inclined to think that the greater breadth and thinness of the northern leaf may be partly due to the greater water-supply and the consequent greater degree of evaporation. Again, the Indian always seeks the Coca grown at the higher elevations, where the humidity is much less and more irregular than in the districts along the rivers. We are thus obliged, for reasons to be elaborated in the future, to regard these alkaloids as preserving a sort of a balance of moisture, by which the plant stores up during the wet weather a concentrated supply of water, which may be very slowly yielded up during a time of need.
“Having thus chosen a high altitude, the next thing is to select a soil. A rivalry exists between a yellow clay and a hill-side soil rich in vegetable matter. My assays have yielded the best results (as to total alkaloids) from soils of the latter class, and I am inclined to think that those who prefer the former soil do so because it yields a somewhat larger crop.“The ground for the nursery-bed is prepared during the latter part of the dry season by breaking it up very thoroughly to the depth of a foot or more. The fruits mature during the early part of the rainy season, December and January. They are red, and consist of a fleshy outer portion and a shell-like inner portion, which encloses the single seed. These people suppose that the germ cannot escape from the shell if planted in its natural condition, and they have continued for hundreds of years to deposit the seeds as soon as gathered in a shaded place, in layers an inch or more deep, and covered with a thin layer of decaying leaves, or similar substance. The heat generated by the decomposition of the fleshy pericarp serves to induce germination, and the embryo bursts from its bony covering. This growth unites them in from eight to fourteen days into a solid mass, which is broken up into small pieces and planted in furrows in the nursery. In this process very many of the sprouts are broken off and the plants destroyed. Mr. Lohse has adopted the plan of sowing the seeds broadcast as soon as gathered, and covering with a little earth,or, better, a layer of banana leaves or decaying vegetable matter. Germination requires from eight to twelve days longer, but all the plants are saved. In either case, a covering of brush or straw must be placed over the nursery, at first only three or four inches above the surface, and elevated to six or seven inches, as the plants grow. Usually this elevation is repeated once more.“All this taking place during the rainy season, the plants have reached a good size before the advent of the dry weather, and so do not call for any artificial water-supply. Advantage is taken of the ensuing dry season to clear the land and prepare the ground for the new cocal. On the manner in which this is done depends much of the future well-being of the plants. The ground should be thoroughly powdered to the depth of two, and, if possible, three feet, all roots and large stones being removed. On these steep slopes it is necessary to terrace, the terraces being supported by stone walls, the stones laid dry. The width of the terraces, according to the slope, varies from several feet, with a number of rows of plants, to much less than the height of the wall, only a single row of plants being admissible. It is here generally believed that shade tends to the production of the best quality of leaves; so the cocales are planted thickly with a small broad-topped leguminous tree related to the St. John’s bread, but whose name I cannot at this moment recall. There is no doubt that this is a mistake. I have made repeated comparative assays of shade-grown and sun-grown leaves from adjoining plants, and invariably found the latter much richer in total alkaloids. I judge the custom to have arisen from two considerations. There is, as I have stated, a period of two or three months when the plants receive no rain, and then these trees afford a protection from the fierce heat. Secondly, shade conduces to the production of a large, smooth, beautiful leaf, of elegant colour, and thus adds to theappearanceof the product. The terraces being thus prepared, on the advent of the permanent rainy season, the plants, now from 8 to 12 inches high, are transplanted, being set from one-half tosix inches apart, according to the ideas of the haciendero. From this time until the first leaves are picked, the greatest care must be taken to keep the soil thoroughly stirred and free from weeds. The plants having been transferred in October or November of one year, the first picking is made in March or April of the second following year, one year and a half from the time of transplanting, or two and one-half from the seeds. In case an insufficient space has been prepared, the remaining plants are often left until the following year, and then transplanted, the operation being much more dangerous to the life of the plants.“The chief danger of picking the leaves earlier than the period indicated above is not the strain upon the vitality of the young plant, as many of the leaves drop off themselves, but because it is almost impossible to avoid breaking off the very tender tips of the twigs, the result being fatal to many plants. Immediately after this first picking, fresh leaves develop with great rapidity, and in July or August of the same year the plant flowers for the first time. The lovely white flowers, if undisturbed, remain from three to six days; but from the very first they are dislodged by the slightest jar, the corolla falling entire, although it is morphologically polypetalous. The fruit ripens in December and January.“During the first few years the percentage of alkaloid increases rapidly, reaching its maximum at or before the age of ten years. At the age of twenty it begins to diminish, but with extreme slowness, so that the plants are practically in their prime up to the age of thirty-five or forty. It is probable that the decline is then due rather to the exhaustion of the soil than of the vitality of the plant. Fertilisation of the soil has never been resorted to. It is probable, as suggested by Mr. Lohse, that as much can be done for the Coca in this way as has been done for other plants.“A Coca harvest is called amita, an Indian word meaning a division or drawing of lots, and there are from three to five in a year, according to the season. The time of picking is determined solely by the condition of the leaves. When they have become mature they turnyellow if in the dry season, and brown if in the rainy, and within eight days at the outside will fall to the ground and be lost. As soon as the mita is over, the ground is cleared from weeds, and, under an ignorant notion that further cleaning is injurious, is left undisturbed until after the next mita. But Mr. Lohse has tried the plan of keeping the ground clean, with the result, thus far, of receiving the next crop in little more than one-half the time required by his neighbours. No irrigation is resorted to during the dry season. Although it is possible that good might result, at least to the welfare of the plant and the size of the crop, I suspect that after a long time an abundant and steady supply of water would result in a decrease in the amount of alkaloids. Mr. Lohse has tried the experiment of mulching at the end of the wet season with a few inches of banana leaves or other refuse, with excellent effect upon the plants during the succeeding dry season.“This plant is subject to only two diseases of any importance. The first is taja, which I suppose to be the result of a fungus which attacks the undeveloped leaves and tender twigs. It is said by some to be caused by careless picking, in which the twigs are broken. By others it is said to result from the planting of seeds taken from young plants. The only remedy is to remove and burn the diseased portions. The second disease, if such it can be called, is the ravages of a caterpillar called “ulo,” which makes its appearance in December, and destroys the crop so quickly that it admits of no remedy.“The method of picking and drying the Coca has been so often and so well described of late that it is not necessary to dwell upon it. Coca picking is a profession to which the children are trained from a tender age. The leaves are picked singly, both hands being employed with a rapid alternating motion, which strips a twig in an instant. Great care is taken to avoid breaking the twigs, and the young leaves are not picked. Little sacks are tied about the waist, or the women’s aprons are pinned or sewn into the required form. They are then transferred to larger sacks, which must be filledand emptied with great promptness, or the leaves will become heated and turn black.“The price here paid for picking is a Bolivian dollar, equal to about seventy-one cents United States currency, or three shillings English, for each thirty pounds, which, when dry, will weigh about twelve pounds.“The leaves are exposed to a hot sun upon a pavement of nicely-fitted flat stones, and stirred occasionally until dry. Under the most favourable conditions the drying is accomplished in about three hours. About the Coca place are built the storage and packing sheds. These are furnished with very broad doors, and men are in constant attendance to sweep the Coca with brush-brooms through these broad portals at the slightest indication of rain. A very few drops of rain are sufficient to decolorise and ruin the sale of the Coca, though it is my impression that such decolorisation, if produced by but little rain, is no indication of loss of cocaine. During the first few days that the dry Coca lies within the storage-sheds it undergoes a slight sweating process.“When I come now to speak of the best methods of packing the Coca for export, it is fair to say that nothing definite is known. Such Coca as has reached Europe or the United States in good condition has done so purely by accident; for, perhaps, the very next lot, dried, packed, and shipped as nearly as possible in the same manner, has arrived entirely ruined. I have tried many methods, and as often as I had thought that the secret was discovered, my hopes have resulted in disappointment.“As regards the exportation of the culture of Coca, the experiment has been tried, I believe, but once. Several years since, Mr. F. L. Steinart, of La Paz, shipped a small quantity of seedsviâLondon to Ceylon, and during the past season the first products were shipped to London and sold at a high price. Seeds for export should be exposed for several days to a hot sun, so as to rapidly dry the fleshy exterior, which thus forms a protection to the germ within.“It is my opinion that the Coca-plant is adapted forculture in many countries where it is now unknown. Among the countries where it would be well to experiment with it are Guatemala, Mexico, the East and West Indies, India, Southern China, portions of Africa, and possibly of Italy. It is doubtful if it would grow in any portion of the United States. Requiring an average temperature of at least 70°, the only districts at all suited would be Florida and Southern Texas; and it is highly probable that proximity to the sea-coast at so low an altitude would prove fatal. Nor would irrigation prove adequate in those countries possessing a long dry season. The plants must not only have an abundant supply of water at the roots; they must be bathed in a humid atmosphere for the greater portion of the year. But from what I have read of some of the countries above named, I am confident that the plant would there find a congenial home. Jamaica offers especially hopeful conditions.”
“Having thus chosen a high altitude, the next thing is to select a soil. A rivalry exists between a yellow clay and a hill-side soil rich in vegetable matter. My assays have yielded the best results (as to total alkaloids) from soils of the latter class, and I am inclined to think that those who prefer the former soil do so because it yields a somewhat larger crop.
“The ground for the nursery-bed is prepared during the latter part of the dry season by breaking it up very thoroughly to the depth of a foot or more. The fruits mature during the early part of the rainy season, December and January. They are red, and consist of a fleshy outer portion and a shell-like inner portion, which encloses the single seed. These people suppose that the germ cannot escape from the shell if planted in its natural condition, and they have continued for hundreds of years to deposit the seeds as soon as gathered in a shaded place, in layers an inch or more deep, and covered with a thin layer of decaying leaves, or similar substance. The heat generated by the decomposition of the fleshy pericarp serves to induce germination, and the embryo bursts from its bony covering. This growth unites them in from eight to fourteen days into a solid mass, which is broken up into small pieces and planted in furrows in the nursery. In this process very many of the sprouts are broken off and the plants destroyed. Mr. Lohse has adopted the plan of sowing the seeds broadcast as soon as gathered, and covering with a little earth,or, better, a layer of banana leaves or decaying vegetable matter. Germination requires from eight to twelve days longer, but all the plants are saved. In either case, a covering of brush or straw must be placed over the nursery, at first only three or four inches above the surface, and elevated to six or seven inches, as the plants grow. Usually this elevation is repeated once more.
“All this taking place during the rainy season, the plants have reached a good size before the advent of the dry weather, and so do not call for any artificial water-supply. Advantage is taken of the ensuing dry season to clear the land and prepare the ground for the new cocal. On the manner in which this is done depends much of the future well-being of the plants. The ground should be thoroughly powdered to the depth of two, and, if possible, three feet, all roots and large stones being removed. On these steep slopes it is necessary to terrace, the terraces being supported by stone walls, the stones laid dry. The width of the terraces, according to the slope, varies from several feet, with a number of rows of plants, to much less than the height of the wall, only a single row of plants being admissible. It is here generally believed that shade tends to the production of the best quality of leaves; so the cocales are planted thickly with a small broad-topped leguminous tree related to the St. John’s bread, but whose name I cannot at this moment recall. There is no doubt that this is a mistake. I have made repeated comparative assays of shade-grown and sun-grown leaves from adjoining plants, and invariably found the latter much richer in total alkaloids. I judge the custom to have arisen from two considerations. There is, as I have stated, a period of two or three months when the plants receive no rain, and then these trees afford a protection from the fierce heat. Secondly, shade conduces to the production of a large, smooth, beautiful leaf, of elegant colour, and thus adds to theappearanceof the product. The terraces being thus prepared, on the advent of the permanent rainy season, the plants, now from 8 to 12 inches high, are transplanted, being set from one-half tosix inches apart, according to the ideas of the haciendero. From this time until the first leaves are picked, the greatest care must be taken to keep the soil thoroughly stirred and free from weeds. The plants having been transferred in October or November of one year, the first picking is made in March or April of the second following year, one year and a half from the time of transplanting, or two and one-half from the seeds. In case an insufficient space has been prepared, the remaining plants are often left until the following year, and then transplanted, the operation being much more dangerous to the life of the plants.
“The chief danger of picking the leaves earlier than the period indicated above is not the strain upon the vitality of the young plant, as many of the leaves drop off themselves, but because it is almost impossible to avoid breaking off the very tender tips of the twigs, the result being fatal to many plants. Immediately after this first picking, fresh leaves develop with great rapidity, and in July or August of the same year the plant flowers for the first time. The lovely white flowers, if undisturbed, remain from three to six days; but from the very first they are dislodged by the slightest jar, the corolla falling entire, although it is morphologically polypetalous. The fruit ripens in December and January.
“During the first few years the percentage of alkaloid increases rapidly, reaching its maximum at or before the age of ten years. At the age of twenty it begins to diminish, but with extreme slowness, so that the plants are practically in their prime up to the age of thirty-five or forty. It is probable that the decline is then due rather to the exhaustion of the soil than of the vitality of the plant. Fertilisation of the soil has never been resorted to. It is probable, as suggested by Mr. Lohse, that as much can be done for the Coca in this way as has been done for other plants.
“A Coca harvest is called amita, an Indian word meaning a division or drawing of lots, and there are from three to five in a year, according to the season. The time of picking is determined solely by the condition of the leaves. When they have become mature they turnyellow if in the dry season, and brown if in the rainy, and within eight days at the outside will fall to the ground and be lost. As soon as the mita is over, the ground is cleared from weeds, and, under an ignorant notion that further cleaning is injurious, is left undisturbed until after the next mita. But Mr. Lohse has tried the plan of keeping the ground clean, with the result, thus far, of receiving the next crop in little more than one-half the time required by his neighbours. No irrigation is resorted to during the dry season. Although it is possible that good might result, at least to the welfare of the plant and the size of the crop, I suspect that after a long time an abundant and steady supply of water would result in a decrease in the amount of alkaloids. Mr. Lohse has tried the experiment of mulching at the end of the wet season with a few inches of banana leaves or other refuse, with excellent effect upon the plants during the succeeding dry season.
“This plant is subject to only two diseases of any importance. The first is taja, which I suppose to be the result of a fungus which attacks the undeveloped leaves and tender twigs. It is said by some to be caused by careless picking, in which the twigs are broken. By others it is said to result from the planting of seeds taken from young plants. The only remedy is to remove and burn the diseased portions. The second disease, if such it can be called, is the ravages of a caterpillar called “ulo,” which makes its appearance in December, and destroys the crop so quickly that it admits of no remedy.
“The method of picking and drying the Coca has been so often and so well described of late that it is not necessary to dwell upon it. Coca picking is a profession to which the children are trained from a tender age. The leaves are picked singly, both hands being employed with a rapid alternating motion, which strips a twig in an instant. Great care is taken to avoid breaking the twigs, and the young leaves are not picked. Little sacks are tied about the waist, or the women’s aprons are pinned or sewn into the required form. They are then transferred to larger sacks, which must be filledand emptied with great promptness, or the leaves will become heated and turn black.
“The price here paid for picking is a Bolivian dollar, equal to about seventy-one cents United States currency, or three shillings English, for each thirty pounds, which, when dry, will weigh about twelve pounds.
“The leaves are exposed to a hot sun upon a pavement of nicely-fitted flat stones, and stirred occasionally until dry. Under the most favourable conditions the drying is accomplished in about three hours. About the Coca place are built the storage and packing sheds. These are furnished with very broad doors, and men are in constant attendance to sweep the Coca with brush-brooms through these broad portals at the slightest indication of rain. A very few drops of rain are sufficient to decolorise and ruin the sale of the Coca, though it is my impression that such decolorisation, if produced by but little rain, is no indication of loss of cocaine. During the first few days that the dry Coca lies within the storage-sheds it undergoes a slight sweating process.
“When I come now to speak of the best methods of packing the Coca for export, it is fair to say that nothing definite is known. Such Coca as has reached Europe or the United States in good condition has done so purely by accident; for, perhaps, the very next lot, dried, packed, and shipped as nearly as possible in the same manner, has arrived entirely ruined. I have tried many methods, and as often as I had thought that the secret was discovered, my hopes have resulted in disappointment.
“As regards the exportation of the culture of Coca, the experiment has been tried, I believe, but once. Several years since, Mr. F. L. Steinart, of La Paz, shipped a small quantity of seedsviâLondon to Ceylon, and during the past season the first products were shipped to London and sold at a high price. Seeds for export should be exposed for several days to a hot sun, so as to rapidly dry the fleshy exterior, which thus forms a protection to the germ within.
“It is my opinion that the Coca-plant is adapted forculture in many countries where it is now unknown. Among the countries where it would be well to experiment with it are Guatemala, Mexico, the East and West Indies, India, Southern China, portions of Africa, and possibly of Italy. It is doubtful if it would grow in any portion of the United States. Requiring an average temperature of at least 70°, the only districts at all suited would be Florida and Southern Texas; and it is highly probable that proximity to the sea-coast at so low an altitude would prove fatal. Nor would irrigation prove adequate in those countries possessing a long dry season. The plants must not only have an abundant supply of water at the roots; they must be bathed in a humid atmosphere for the greater portion of the year. But from what I have read of some of the countries above named, I am confident that the plant would there find a congenial home. Jamaica offers especially hopeful conditions.”