Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1894-11-07
EXTRAORDINARY COTTON.
pECU GROWS TT IN A VARIETY OF
NATURAL COLORS.

NATURAL COLORS.
Tie Remarkable FIeecy Staple of the
Piura-it is Watered Only Once
In Seven Years-Tree Cotton.
THE discovery of new and nat
ural sources of wealth in Peru
is an unending wonder. From
the day in 1881 when Pizarro
entered the Bay of Paita, that delight
full land has presented the world an
iiiumin sted procession of revelations
extending along three and half CEN
turies OF its modern history.
Green fields covered the coast plains
unsler the benign influence of the Inca
rule, which devised the economy of ir-
rigation and impressed the discoverers
with sense of the wealth and beauty
of the land now become a bald, gray
sterile waste, but showing here and
there brilliant spot of verdure in the
midst of the general aridity.
The lands of the Piura lie four to
five degrees south of the equator, and
once in seven years are visited by floods
that wet narrow belt along the banks,
available for cultivation, all OF which
is now appropriated to cotton. This
one wetting gives five crops, two per
wear, and then the land rests to finish
\ the cycle of seven years and another
| succession of five crops. The waters
! of the Piura continue to flow until
some time in October, when the people
who live in the valley begin to sink
wells in the sands of the river bottom
for their daily supply. The disap
| pearance of the river is so gradual 1t If
not possible to designate tie day wheI
it takes place. Not SO, however, it:
arrival, in February or March, wher
| the bed OF the stream has been dry fol-
months and has been occupied by trucl
| gardens.
Then the people become thirsty TO,
the river. Every traveller from up th'
! valley is questioned rs to where the
river WAS when he passed. If he repor
that it is coming a crowd of eager list
eners and questioners surround him a
if he brought important news from
some foreign loan commission; ant
naturally enough, for the condition o
the river, whether it contains much o
little water, is the prophecy of a year
crop. At last, generally about tn
middle OF February, one hears that tn
river is twenty leagues away and j
coming; few days later it is only tel
leagues distant, and as it passes tn
upper haciendas the Indians turn on
and welcome it with dunn and fife AL,
fire rockets.
Sometimes there comes disappoint
ment for when it seems sure thin.
and the people of the city of Piura IL
the lower valley have begun to lool
for it the river has ceased to flow; /
sinks away in the sands and they say
'The river has gone back" This
however, will last but few days
Again it comes and we hear in Piur
that t'The river is but II league ava,
and will he with us to-day" Thel
every horse and saddle is brought on
and the people leave the city to NEE
the messenger of glad tidings, o
health and riches to the arid land.
In all the year there Is not In tn
north of Peru feast to equal this
No fatigue IS felt by the multitude
who travel through the heavy sands
some on foot, some on Gonkeys-poOl
brutes, most patient OF all created
beings two or three grow
men Al Won 81 vita y small family ol
halt-Sfoxl children ers again a.,
mounted on mules AMI then the elit'
ON horses. All are glad! When ,vol
meet the r.yer it is II little tricklins
straanle5 rdnninS hers AMI there IL
search ftho loves places; it stops t
fill the wells in its road that were ex
cavated last season, and then runs for
ward in the same little rill. A shor
dista - farther up you will find re-
spectacle stream, where the boys and
dogs run into it snd lie down an,
revel, AMI in a little time can swim. II
Is for everybody season of real Joy,
and with many a carnival of frolic.
The spectacle of its approach wit
messed from the Bridge of Piura is a
wonderful sight. Iou see the pioneer
of the marching host come slowly
around hend of the river at the up
per edge of the town, followed shortly
by the surging army of thousands o
people; you hear the music o? tn
band, the murmur of five thoIsan
voices and the din OF rockets whic,
throw . smoking line along the air.
The river has come!
1t has reached the bridge in tn:
early evening and the band plays Will
the people dance on and under tn
bridge all night lon~, or Us long as tn
increasing food permits. Ii 5000 tur
out to escort the river to Piura, it /
met by more than II, 900 at Catscsos
an Indian pueblo six miles lower dow.
the stream.
The cotton produced in the valley
of the Piura shows varying shades frol
rich dark brown to the purest white
SO finely graded that one can scarcel
tell wherr one color ends and tl2.
other begins. At the present time td,
cultivable area is SO small that the de
mands of TIE market cannot be mes
By the system proposed it Is hoped t
get more than million acres Of tn
fertile territory under the care OF il
rigstion, when not only cotton, bu
sugar, coffee, cocoa, indigo, ali tt
vegetables and fruits of the tropics ca
be grown as they were centuries ago.
The appearance ofa Peruvian cotto:
field may we'll astonish An America
planter, for in the five years of ii
growth the plant often reaches =
height of twenty feet, and in tn
weeks of ripenins has all the beauty
of an immense sunlit snowdrift.
The Peruvian tree cotton" o
which a good deal has been written, is
really only an accident. The ''trees
are from seed deposited i'll some wet
place during an exceptionally high
flood and left without attention during
succeeding years. But where the sui,
ply of water permits the CROP is -
tflnted each seven years, the second,
third and fourth being the finest crops
If each planting. There are low
spots where veritaEss cotton orchards