The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1898-04-10

on. and when opened its rich yellow fiesaa
seems much the same. There are many
trees here which bear fruits as big as ycnr
head 81 one kind or another. The buttons
en- your coat are probably made OF veget-
able ivory from Colombia or Ecuador
This ivory is shipped from Gusyaquii and
Panama In the shape OF nuts which hook
uauca like chestnuts, saye that each nut Is
as big SIS the fist OF a iwo-year-oia baby,
ard as hard as iron. These nuts grow on u
low palm tree in what looks like rough
chestnut burrs as big as your head. Each
burr contains dozen or more nuts, which.
when green. are filged with a soft 5ealy-like
substance tasting not unlike ceccaaut milk.
In company with a party on a recent trip
10 the interior I ate some of them and
found them not at all bad. Ecuador has a
considerable trade In them. and her ship
ments ni them last year brought in $sssoa.
where the Trees Weave BImnke1s.
Ecuador has trees which weave bed
clothing. slept last night In a blanket
made OF the bark of a trse which grows
on the slopes Of the Andes. The blanket
IS six feet long and over five feet wide.
and IL Is as soft and piiabie though
It was made OF flannel. 1t Is of about the
thickness or good flannel blanket. and I
can easily roll il UP and put IL in my
shawl strap without hurting 1t. This
blanket Is merely strip of bark cur from
tree. The Indians made a cutting around
the trunk TO SET il. and they then prepare
1t by soaking 1t in water until 1t was sof;.
They then pounded 1t so that the rough
outside could be stripped off and the In
side alone left. The inside Is Of fine iihers
so joined together by nature that 4 makes
q beautiful blanket. warm enough to be
used as cover and soft enough for a
mattress. / have had a photograph made
OF 1t. my friend. Mr.. Rock, and myself
holding II up 10 show you its size. The
pineapples here are delicious, and the ban
anas and coffee are unsurpassed by those
OF any other part of South America.
Cup Of Chocolate.
The chief articles OF export from Ecua-
dor, however. IS cacao. or. as we call 1t.
cocoa 1t Is from this that the chocolate
cemss. There are vast cocoa Plantations
along the Gusyas river and the other riv-
ers OF the Pacific coast, and the planters
have one or the best paying businesses
among the farmers of the world. There
ATE few plantations which do not net u
per cent, and many bring in five times
this amount. Today Ii costs here. am
told. about cents of our money TO raise
a pound OF cocoa. whereas it sells N
Guayaauil for about Ii cents, making u
clear profit to the farmer OF III cents
tgoiO pound. and paying him a profit
OF about 400 per cent. This year Ecuador
VIII raise about forty million pounds OF
cocoa beans. which viii be shipped to Eu-
rope and the United States. The crop
Is not difficult one to raise, and when
an orchard Is once bearing Ii is good for
big income for from twenty to thirty
years. Until came here / had no idea
as to how cocoa was grown. had heard
OF the cocoa bean. and supposed ii cams
from vine or bush. The truth IL, the
beans. which when ground up make our
chocolate, grow on trees from twenty TO
thirty feet high. The tree is much IKE
an immense lilac bush. 1t is ragged and
gnarly, and its fruit. which is bigger than
tho pone.o or grape fruit grows on the
stem or trunk and close TO the branches
1t Is OF the shape of an immense lemon,
and of about the same color and the
seeds within 1t are the chocolate beans
OF commerce. Each ball Of fruit contains
from twenty-e.ght to thirty brown beans
about as big as Lima beans These are
washed out of the pulp that surrounds
them and dried and then shipped TO the
chocolate factories all over the world
There Ia chance for men who have some
capital, and who are not afraid of the
miasma of the tropics 10 make money
here In raising chocolate.
AS for me, ! would not advise anyone to
come TO Guayaquil or tropical Ecuador TO
engage In anything. My experience Is
such that IL Mount Chimborazo was one
solid lump of chocolate and 1t was Of
ferec me as a reward for staying here
for ten years l would not take II. Nearly
every American who comes here gets the
fever, and l am told that 80 per cent. OF
al Americans who have tried to I've here
nave died. As to the profits OF cocoa plan
taiions. however, wild lands can be gntten