The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-07-27
The Plant From Which Cocaine
is Extracted.
HOW 1T is CULTIVATED
The Strange Effect Produced by Chewing
Its Leaves-Instances Of Longevity
in Indians and Diseases.

y
Bolivia's crop of dried coca leaves has
averaged a triae over 100000 pounds. OF
this vast amount, fully 55 per cent. is con
sumed at home by the native Indians
About 30 per cont of the remainder is
divided equally between Chill and the
Argentine Republic. Peru gets 10 per cent
| OF it; Europe, 5 per cent. and the United
States none at all.
| Since alkaloid cocaine has lately come
into general use for
PRODUCING LOCAL ANESTHESIA,
the demand for the coca leaves, from
which it is made, has greatly increased.
| though without sensibly affecting the mar
kets OF South America. Soon as the appli-
cation of cocaine to surgical uses became
common, the British government sent out
a commission to collect the plants and
transfer them to India, and already the
plantations of those far off colonies are
yielding SO profusely that they furnish
plenty Of leaves for the German manufac-
turer, who supplies the world with most of
| the cocaine that is used.
| 1t must be remembered that the cocoa
palm, the seeds of which furnish the chloe
olate of commerce, and the coca plant,
from which cocaine is made, are not related
to one another in any way, but belong to
different branches of the vegetable family.
| Ery throXylon coca is not a tree but a
small shrub. growing from two to five feet
| high 1t fiourishes best at an altitude be-
tween 5000 and 5000 feet above the sea, in
sheltered places, where the climate is warm
and moist without excessive heat. In this
country it attalns its greatest perfection in
the province OF Yungas, where the noun
tain ridges, crossing in every direction,
| leave deep holloWS and narrow valleys be-
tween, giving all varieties of climate with
the productions peculiar to each. That
section not only produces the best coca in
the world, but
VANILLA AND CHOCOLATE BEANS,
sarsaparilla, coffee quinine, oranges, figs,
bananas, grapes, apples, pears, peaches,
plums, strawberries, ounces, cherries,
chlremayas, mangoes, apricots, sugar cane,
corn, wheat, and barley are gathered from
| the cooler heights, the sunny hillsides and
| the lower villages
| A good deal of coca is also grown in Peru
| in the neighborhood of Cuzco; but it is OF
inferior quality, as the hot, dry, atmos-
/ phere thickens the leaves and DESTROYS
their delicate flavor.
| The lower mountain sides of the Yungas
and other valleys are laid out in terraces,
each terrace about a yard wide and well
supported by wall of stones, in which the
little coca bushes, closely resembling tea
/ plants, are set at regular distances The
seeds are first sown in beds, and when the
plants are few inches high, they are
| transferred to the terraces. No fertilizers
are used, but great care is taken that no
grasses or other growthS are allowed to
spring up with the coca.
| Each bush yields three generous crops of
leaves in year, and sometimes four, where
the conditions of soil and climate are pecu-
liarly favorable. Each crop is called a
mita. The first, known as the ''Marzo
mita" March CROP, is generally picked in
January; the second, or est Johns mita. y
is gathered in May; and the third, or Cali
Saints mita,'' in October.
THE HARVEST TIME,
however, is by no means uniform. depend
ing greatly on the weather, the rain and
| other accidents.
The crop is gathered by Indian women.
who pick it, leaf by leaf, squatted upon the
ground in front of a bush. 1t is slow work,
because the tiny leaves must not be broken
or the central fibre torn; and it is believed
that if the apex of the plant is touched, or
if any animal brushes against it, all the
Fleaves will instantly wither
| Following the women come men with
large sacks, who collect the gathered leaves
and carry them to the cachi, or coca ward
to be dried. The. cachi is enclosed by 4
wall, and paved with fiat stones that are
kept perfectly clean. The morning sun
striking down on these stones heats them
so that when the leaves are spread smoothly
over the surface they become perfectly dry
in few hours. Then they are re collected,
more carefully than ever, having now be-
come somewhat brittle, and carried to the
press, the latter being primitive machine
with crossbeam made of the hard wood
of the country. When completely dry the
leaves still retain their bright green color,
even after having been packed for months.
The press has box which holds precisely
twenty-five pounds. A lining of dried
banana leaves, soft as silk yet strong as
leather, is put into the box before the coca
is poured in. When turned out of the press
the package is called certa; and two GER
tas, fifty pounds, when lashed together,
form tambo, or 'drum." The latter is
wrapped in coarse sacking and more
banana leaves, and makes a bundle which
measures about three cubic feet. In this
shape it is toted over the mountains to La
Paz on mule or llama back, to be deposited
in the Adriano de coca, or coca custom
house.
AFTER A PICKING SEASON
the roads leading out of the valleys are lit
orally filled with beasts of burden laden
with coca, and troops of Indians on their
way to town to sell the fruits of then
labors, or on their way home, generally
empty-handed, but in state of jolly intoX.
icatlon, the women out-doing the men in
their enjoyment of the spree--singing
dancing, bowling, like so many lunatics
but always docile and respectful to the
superior race, though they occasionally in
dulge in little hair-pulling among them
selves
Thus the whole coca crop grown in the
loWlandS must pass over the great Cordil
lera, to height of nearly 1900 feet be
fore it can reach a market A good deal is
ruined in transit, when not sufficiently
protected, as the least moisture, such as
the usual snow storm to be encountered in
the upper heights, rots the delicate leaves
and destroys their cocaine properties.
That which is exported from Bolivia is re.
wrapped at the Adriano in bales of Lao
pounds each, covered first with rawhide,
then with strong cloth and thick coating
added of some resinous gum. Two of these
bales. or 300 pounds, is considered a mule.
load for the long, hard journey between La
Paz and the sea.
THE AVERAGE PRICE OF COCA
to the produce is % cents (gold) per
pound; but out of this he has to pay a tax
of "a centavos (about Is cents gold) on
every pound. Think of cultivating. pick
ing, drying and packing the tiny leaves for
that small profit, to say nothing of CARR
ing them several days journey over the
mountains.
l The government derives no small share