The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-03
LIFE ON THE EQUATOR.



ture image of the part which is diseased
If man has a sore leg he mcids a little
leg of gold-it may be the size of his little
finger, it may be larger-and offers it to the
saint. 1t is hung up before his blessedness
on string with other similar offerings of
golden eyes, teeth, hands and legs for
time and if the sore part gets well the In
dian is convinced the saint and the gold
did the work. Mr.. Mansfield, an American
electrical engineer, who is in charge of the
electric lights and the street railway of
Panama, is my authority for the state
ment. He says he has often tried to buy
such relics from the priests in the interior.
but that though they acknowledge that they
melt up and use the relics after time, they
viii not sell them.
FOR A PATENT MEDICINE MAN.
Mr.. Mansfield is generally considered
one of the best of the foreign authorities on
the wonderful wealth of vegetable life of
the Isthmus OF Panama. Before / left
Washington / was asked by the Secretary
of Agriculture to look up certain plants
and trees which it is thought might profit
ably be introduced into the United States.
Among those asked for from the Isthmus
was the Platonic bamboo, which is said
to have leaf foot wide and fifteen feet
long. 1t was this inquiry that brought me
into contact with Mr.. Mansfield and gave me
much curious information. Said he: There
is a wonderful variety of plant life here,
and many specimens believe which are not
generally known"
There are more than twenty varieties of
bamboos on the isthmus. There are woods
superior in their lasting qualities to the
teak wood of Siam and a great amount of
mahogany and dye woods. There are
plants and woods which the Indians use
for medicinal purposes, which 1 am sur
prised are not taken up by our doctors.
Take the cacique wood. This will stop the
flowing of blood almost instantly. If you
scrape off a little dust from cacique stick
and put it in a cut the blood will imme-
diately stop running. The Indians use it
for all kinds of cuts and they say that if
a person who has a hemorrhage of any
kind takes hold of a cacique stick it will
stop it. You find such stick in many an
Indian hut ready for use in case Of acct
dent. This wood is expensive, piece the
size of a walking cane costing in Panama
$40 and upward The necha fruit is good
for cancers and tumors. Another tree is a
snake-poison antidote, and Mr.. Mansfield
says that he learns of some medic
inal plant or tree nearly every time he
visits his little plantation away off in the
interior where he buys of the Indians and
has a factory for the making of al
cohol, rum and other such things.
During his last trip he was shown
a plant which was said to be a won
derful emetic. He asked an Indian girl
to make some tea of it for himself and
partner, and they agreed together that
they would test the virtues of the plant
by drinking a cup. They did so. The liquor
tasted sweet and seemed not at all bad
as it went down. A moment later both
men made a rush for. the door. Their
sto.nachs We're turr ed inside out, and as
Mr.. Mansfield expressed it, they thought
that even their heels were coming up
through their threats. There is a fruit
something like melon sold in the mar
kets of Panama which is a strong digest
ant and which, am told, has almost as
much pepsin in it as pigs stomach, and
farther down in Colombia grows the leche-
miel tree, the sap of which is like cows
milk and has much the same nutritious
properties. Then in some provinces the
cinchona or quinine tree grows, and also
the cocoa from which comes our choco-
late.
A CoCOANUT- PLANTATION.
Along the lowlands of Colombia there are
plenty of cocoanut trees. The cocoanuts,
you know, grow on a palm tree They are
to be seen by the bushel along the Isthmus.
of Panama, hanging close to the stem of
the tree away up at the top, often as high
as thirty feet above the ground, where the
great palm leaves spring out. 1t is only
lately that men have gone into cocoanut
raising as a business, and L am told that
groves of these trees have recently been
~ to, -
nut plantation owned by American in
partnership with Colombian on the Light
house point. just opposite where the steam
ers land at Colon. The American is the
Mr.. Hyatt, of Washington, of whom 1 have
spoken as being connected with the big
manganese mine owned by John K. Cowen
and others. Mr.. Hyatt tells me that the
plantation consists of 1880 acres and that
they have already planted 10000 trees and
have about 5000 in bearing. They are now
shipping from fifteen to twenty thousand
nuts "a month to New York, and within
three years from now, when the rest of
their trees will be in fruit, they expect the
orchard to produce $4,000 nuts a month.
Cocoanut trees, you know, bear all the
year round, and the blossoms and the ripe
nuts are on the tree at the same time. The
nuts are not picked, but drop from the tree
W0Gn IDoy are ripe, anu the WOIhHlSH go
daily from tree to tree and pick up the nuts,
husk them, and they are then ready for
shipment. They bring from $40 to $S5
thousand in New York, and the greater
part of this is clear profit.
1 asked Mr.. Hyatt to tell me something
of the expense and management of such an
orchard. Said he:
at costs very little to run it. We are
now paying out, all told, only about $3.50
month"; and our receipts are from $500 to $500
a month. You see, the trees need prac-
tically no cultivation, and after they are
once in bearing all we have to do is to
gather and ship the nuts. We have one part
of the plantation which we call the nursery.
Here we raise the young trees. The nuts
are placed on the top of the ground short
distance apart. Within a short time each
nut sends out sprout from one of the little
eyes or holes which are found in one end
of it. The sprout shoots up into the air and
a root shoots down into the ground. Within
a few months, without any attention what
ever, the sprout grows from two to three
feet high and it is then ready for trans
planting This is done by breaking off the
root and putting the nut and sprout into
little hole in the ground just a little deeper
than the thickness of the nut We press the