Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-04-09

and Washington. and some from
Georgia.
WHERE THE MELONS GROW ON
TREES.
The equatorial coast region. where [
moW am, is fun of vegetable wonders
rms is today the richest and most
productive part of Ecuador In my
Sixty miles sail up the River Guyas to
TINS city l passed vast haciendas COW
cred with grass as green as the fields
OF Egypt In winter. in which fat cattle
horses and mules stood up to their bel
lies ana ate without having to bend
down to reach the grass. l passed rich
plantations of sugar cane, which here
grows to the height of ten feet, and
winch grows for twenty-five years
without replanting. saw vast cocoa
orchards loaded down with the fruit
from which our chocolate comes. Tall
cocoanut palms bearing green balls of
fruit as big as your head swayed to and
FRO high above the houses of the plant
ers. and strange fruits of so many kinds
that l cannot give you their names
were offered to us again and again
me wharves of Guayaquil are lined
with the Ecuadorian natives who have
brought fruit and other things to SELL
They have melons which comes from
trees, known as the papoya. This fruit
is OF the size of large musk melon
and when opened Its rich yellow flesh
seems much the same. There are many
trees here which bear fruits as big as
your head of one kind or another. The
buttons on your coat are probably
made of vegetable ivory from Colombia
or Ecuador. This ivory IL shipped from,
Guayaquil and Panama In the shane of
nuts, which look much like chestnuts.
save that each nut is as big as the fist
OF two-yenr-old baby, and as hard
as iron. These nuts grow on a low
M w To-. sIs.t
chestnuts burrs as big as your head.
Each burr contains dozen or more
nuts. which, when green, are filed with
soft jelly-like substance tasting not
unlike cocoanut milk. In company
with party on recent trip to the in
terror l ate some of them and found
them not at all bad. Ecuador has n
considerable trade in them. and her
shipments of them last year brought
in 1886, 900.
WHERE THE TREES WEAVE
BLANKETS.
Ecuador has trees which weave bed
clothing. | slept Inst night In n blanket !
made of the bark of tree which grows /
on the slopes of the Andes. The blan- |
ket is six feet long and over five feet |
wide, and 1t is as soft and pliable as |
though 1t was made of flannel. 1t is of |
about the thickness of n good flannel !
put 1t In my shawl strap without hurt !,
Ing 1t. This blanket is merely n strip /
Of bark cut from section Of the trunk |
Of the demajagua tree. The indians
made a cutting around the trunk 10 ret
It, and they then prepared IL by soak
ing 1t In water until 1t was soft. They
then pounded It so that the rough out,
side could be stripped of and The in
side alone left The inside is of fino
ibers SO Joined together by nature thai
i makes n beautiful blanket. warm
enough to be used as a cover and soft
enough for n mattress. I have had n
made OF II. nv friend. Nv
Rock, and myself holding it up 10 show
you its size. The pineapples here are
delicious. and the bananas and ooffee
ire unsurpassed by those of any other
)art of South America.
crrp on ,,,o,
vi ShocoLATE.
The chief article of export from,
however. is cacao. or 40 We
all IL, cocoa 1t is from this that tha
chocolate comes. There are vast cocoa
along the Guvos riv.,. ond
he other rivers OF the pacif,c coaat
md the planters have one 81 Tho re,
laying Businesses annonr. ,ha far,
II the world. There are sau, ,ha,.t
ions which do not net ~ per cent and