The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-09-30

OF Chewing its Leaves.
Special Correspondence of the Journal
and Courier.)
La Paz, Bolivia, Aug. 20, 1908.
Ever since Cervantes wrote his
charming tale of Don Quixote de la
Mancha, myriads of tired lips have
echoed Mancha Panza's exclamation:
God bless the man who first invented
Sleep; and in later years, with how
much greater fervor have suffering
souls blessed that benefactor of man
kind who discovered the use of cocaine
as means of putting tortured nerves
to sleep in surgical operations and 9TH
er ills to which flesh is heir!
Our principal object in making the te-
dious trip over seven successive spurs
of the Andean range into tropical Be-
livia, was to investigate the culture of
the plant known to science as erythrox
ylon coca. For more than a quarter of
a century Bolivia'sy crop of dried coca
leaves has averaged a trifle over $780,
600 pounds. OF this vast amount fully
| fifty-five per cent is consumed at home
| by the native Indians. About thirty
per cent. of the remainder is divided
| equally between Chill and the Argentine
| Republic. Peru gets ten per cent. of it;
Europe five per cent; and the United
| states none at all. Since alkaloid CO.
| eaine has lately come into general use
| for producing local anaesthesia the de-
mand for the coca leaves from which it
is made has greatly increased, though
4 without ci W.
| Of South America. Soon as the appli-
| cation of cocaine to surgical uses be-
| came common, the British government
sent out commission to collect the
plants and transfer them to India; and
already the plantations of these far-off
colonies are yielding so profusely that
they furnish plenty of leaves for the
German manufacturers who supply the
world with most Of the cocaine that is
i used. 1t should be remembered that the
cocoa PALM the seeds of which furnish
the chocolate of commerce, and the
coca plant from which cocaine is made
are not related to one another in any
| way but belong to different branches
of the vegetable family. Eryehrorylorl
coca Is not a tree, but a small shrub,
growing from two to five feet high. 1t
| tiourishes best at an altitude between
three thousand and six thousand feet
above the sea, in sheltered places where
the climate is warm and moist without
| excessive heat. In this country it at
tains its greatest perfection in the pro-
vince of yungas, where the mountain
ridges, crossing in every direction, leave
| deep holloWs and narrow valleys be-
tween, giving all varieties of climate
With the production peculiar to each. 1
Not only is the best coca in the world
produced In that section, but also the
bark from which quinine is made. va
nilla and chocolate beans, coffee, Or
| anges, figs, bananas, grapes, apples, |
peaches, pears, sugar-cane, corn, wheat
and barley, products of both tropic and
temperate zones, gathered. from the
cooler highlands, the sunny hillsides
and the lower villages
The foothills of the Andes that outline
Yungas and other Bolivian valleys are
laid out in terraces, each terrace about
yard wide, each we'll supported by a
wall of stones, in which the little coca
bushes, closely resembling tea plants.
ar set at regular distances. The seeds
are first sown in BEDS and when the |
plants are a few inches high, they are
transferred to the terraces. Each bush |
ylelds three generous crops Of leaves in |
year, and sometimes four where the |
conditions of soil and climate are pecu- |
liarly favorable. No fertilizers are
used, but great care is taken that no |
grasses or other groWths are allowed to |
spring up with the coca. Each crop Is |
called mita. The first, known as the !
MARIO nita" March crop, is general
~ picked in January; the second, or
st. Johns mita," is gathered in May;
and the third, or "All Saints mita." in
Octoba. The harvest time. however, is
by no means uniform, depending aratly
on the weather and the amount of rain.
The crop is gathered by Indian women,
who pick it leaf by leaf, sq,ratting upon
the ground in front of ablsh. It is
slowwork, because the tiny leaves must
not be broken or the central fibre torn:
and it is believed that If the apex of
the plant is touched by the picker. or IL
any animal brushes against it. all the
leaves will instantly wither.
Following the women come men with
large sacks, who collect the gathered
leaves and marry them to the cachi, or
coca-yard, to be dried. The cachi is in
closed by a wall, and paved with fiat
stones that are kept perfectly clean.
The morning sun shining on these
stones, heats them so that when the
leaves are spread smoothly over the
surface they become thoroughly dry in
few hours. Then they are re-collect-
ed, more carefully than ever having
now become somewhat brittle. and car
ried to the press the latter being
primitive machine with a wooden cross
beam. When completely dried the
leaves still retain their bright green
color, even after having been packed
for months. The press has a box which
holds precisely twenty-five pounds. A
lining of dry banana leaves, soft as
silk, yet strong as leather, is put into
the box before the coca is poured in.