The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-10-17


 sues an edict. it is published in the off, cial newspaper. although the vast ma jority of the population never sees it, and could not read it if they did. When there is occasion for especial haste in the matter, regiment of soldiers is sent out, preceded by a band, who stop at every street corner while the com manding officer proclaims the law in a loud voice.
 The production of chincona bark, or cascarilla. as 1t is here called, from which the alkaloid quinine is extracted. was for many years Bolivia's most i'm portant industry in the agricultural line; but during the last decade it has proved unprofitable, owing to competi- tion in Java and the British provinces Of southern Asia. That class of indi- Yiduals known at home as smart Aleeks" are found even in this out-of- the-way corner of creation. One of these is a certain Senor Shucroft, who was heavy planter of cascarilla few years ago, prosperous and presumably happy. One unlucky day the idea struck him of sending quantity of quina seed to his home government that of Holland-thereby getting him. self into the newspapers and winning the gratitude of posterity. In uncalled- for generosity, he sent a very large amount of seed, with minute directions for it's treatment derived from his own experience, and suggested that experi- ments be made in Java. The renarka- ble success of ehincona in that island led the British government to encour- age it's planting in India, and already the business is ruined everywhere by over production. Mir. Shucroft received a little gold medal from the Dutch gov ernment in acknowledgement of his en- terprise; and maybe that consoled him for the loss of all his fortune, his own extensive carcarilla plantations having become valueless. Bolivia can never compete with those eastern countries that now take the lead in chincona pro- duction, because of her immense tlisad- vantage in the matter of transportation. All her products must cross the success stye cordilleras of the Andes on their way to the sea, mostly, on mule back, at
 
 eleven bolivianas per hundred weight an expense five times greatr than that of carrying it from the coast : around Cape Horn to Europe. A boliviana, by the way, is the Bolivian dollar, and is worth twenty-five cents less than the "sol'' (dollaD of Peru; and the Bolivian peso is worth twenty-five cents less than the bolivlana; while every Ameri- can dollar in gold or paper commands at least s1.S0 infB Bolivian currency.
 As an example of the rapid deprecia- tion in the price of bark, may be men toned the Erickson plantation, which a few years ago was valued at a million and a half bolivianas, and is now of fered for sale at less than a quarter of that amount, but cannot find a purcha- ser. Nearly all of Bolivia's cascarilla is of the red variety known as quina morada. The number of quina trees now under cultivation in this country is said to exceed fifteen million; about two-thirds of them being near the northern border, in the province of Ma piri, whose business center is Sorrato. The department of Yungas cultivates half a million trees, and great many are grown in the Benil province, farther, to. the east. It is impossible to get any reliable statistics regarding Beni's pro- ductions, because they all go to the eastern coast of the continent, via the Amazon and it's tributaries. Indeed, there are no printed statistics of any. kind concerning Bolivia's exports or i'm ports, and no history of the country was ever written, except one small and very incomplete edition in Spanish pub lished half a century ago. >,..
 As to the treatment of chincona: At this distance from the equator it will not grow at a greater elevation than five thousand feet, nor lower than three thousand. The seeds, which are sowr1 in beds, are so very small, lighter than the lightest thiste-down, that the least breeze will blow them away, necessita- ting great care in the handling. When the plants are about a foot high they are transplanted, five or six feet apart. to the sunny side of ia mountain. It is asserted that virgin soil is absolutely necessary, and that the addition of any kind of fertilizer would be ruinous. Thrice every year the earth between the trees is slightly disturbd by the prin1i- tive blows of the country, and that is all the cultivation they require. At the age of eight years the trees are ready to strip; or, if tn owner is hard LID, as is usually the case, a part of them may be utilized sooner and young plants put into their places. Tn some sections it is customary to remove from each tree about one-quarter of it's bark every year; but here the tree is cut down to the ground, it's trunk and larger limbs peeled, and the smallest branches care fully scraped, clear to the leaves. An tree yields from twelve to fifteen pounds of bark, which in the present depressed state of trade is worth only about severty-five cents. If the peeled-off bark happens to get wet 1t loses much of its alkaloid quinina; hence every planter has to build ample sheds in which to dry it. The trunk of the tree after having been peeled, is en- tirely valueless, not even good for fire- wood in a country where fuel is scarce. The cost of cutting, drying and pack ing the bark is about $1.90 per hundred Il weight. A box Is lined with burlap and then with layer of banana leaves. The bark is put in and pressed down by machinery until the box will hold no more and the scale indicates exactly one hundred pounds. It is then re- from hun