The Republican journal., 1903-04-09

good hat; and when finished it will
bring all the way from fifteen to one
hundred and fifty dollars. But it will
| last lifetime, and can be rolled up
and chucked into a vest pocket, cleaned
as often as required, and worn either
side out as the inner surface is as
smooth and well finished as the outer.
A great many hammocks are also
made in Ecuador from pita fibre and
dried grass, and they find a ready mar
ket abroad The coffee Of Ecuador is
fairly good, but very little is exported.
1t grows on ii tree about eight feet high,
with glossy, dark green leaves, flowers
resembling orange blossoms, and yel-
low, green and purple berries, all at the
same time 1t is said that each tree
YIELDS all average of ten pounds of cof-
fee a year Another staple of Ecuador,
which ought to be made much more of,
is chincona, or Peruvian bark. AS
everybody knows, its name was bestoW
ed in honor Of the Countess of Chlncon,
who was cured by its use of intermit-
tent fever in Lima, Peru, about the
! middle of the 18th century. The medi-
cine which saved the Countess life'
was prescribed by an Indian, who said,
it had been used for centuries by the
Incas and their descendants. 1t worked
| lot
then introduced into Europe, and the
| knowledge of its curative powers soon
spread throughout the earth, Compar-
atively little Of it grows in Peru, ex-
cept on its northern border; but Ec1a-
dor has enough to supply the world for
! all time to come That familiar medi-
cine. CUNNINGHAM alkaloid made from
| Peruvian bark--was discovered in 1920.
! The same bark contains several other
| alkaloids, but none so important as
quinine. In many parts of South
! America it is as necessary provision
as food. and no traveller will venture
| into a malarious region without 1t.
| There are twenty-five distinct varieties
of trees in Ecuador from whose bark
ouinine is made The bark is mostly
sent to Germany and comes back in the
form of the bitter medicine, retailing
| for nearly double the price here where
it grows than in the United States and
Europe. By-the-way, it is asserted that
the chincona tree tlourishes not only on
the lower slopes of the Andes, but
equally well wherever transplanted-in
India, Java, Algiers, Mexico and the
United States. Among all the new in
dustries that are continually winning
fortunes, why does not some enterpris-
ing Yankee start a quinine plantation
in one or more of the elevated parts of
1 California or the Southern States?
The product par excellence of Ecua-
dor at present is chocolate and cocoa,
especially the last named. which is
second in quality only to that of Vene-
zuela. Three or four kinds of cocoa
are Indigenous to this coast, though
only fraction of it is gathered, owing
to the scarcity of laborers. One of
these varieties is erythorxylon cocoa,
from which cocaine is made. Formerly
Ecuador and Bolivia supplied the world
with all it had of these leaves, which to
the native Indians are more of food
than a medicine, and considered abso-
lutely indispensable, as we consider
: salt. But after DR.. Roller of Vienna
: discovered the alkaloid cocaine, the
! English government at once dispatched
a commission to transplant the tree to
its Indian colonies; and now India fur
| nishes the murderous drug to most of
the world. Strange to say, chocolate
costs more here, by half, than at retail
in the United States where it does not
grow Probably this is partly owing to
: the fact that here it is all chocolate,
while it's importers have learned that
pipe-clay is harmless as beverage and
greatly increases the weight of theil
chocolate. The Mexican word, choco
lat, is the origin of our name as bev
erage, here pronounced as if spelled
chalk -o-lat-ah. The best chocolate is
prepared by first burying the fruit until
the pulp is decayed and only the beans
are left. These are roasted and theil
shells removed. The chocolate is then
ground between stones into soft mass
and poured into moulds. The melted
chocolate is pressed in bags; precisely
as Northern housewives make jelly, til
all the oil is expelled. The sediment is
then ground very slowly to prevent re-
melting; and after being "bolted'' is
ready for use.
: The cocoa tree resembles our lilac