The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1913-01-21

and we are p several nunQreu
thousand dollars worth of drugs and
Medicines business in which Ger
many tries in vain to compete.
AS to our imports, We are buying
about a million dollars worth of Sal
VadOr coffee, six or sever hundred
thousand dollars worth of gold and a
few thousand dollars worth Of rubber
and skins. The total exports to the
United States in 1910 were just a little
over two" Millions bagatelle in
comparison with the population and
wealth Of the country.
Salvador Farms and Farming.
Salvador is different from the other
Central. American states in that it is
divided up into small farms. There
are. .manyx la~ndholders, and nearly
every family owns it's own home farm.
The soil is fertile and the rainfall
abundant. There are thousands Of
little coffee plantations, many indigo
farms and. here and there a field of
green cane.
The government is doing all it can
to encourage farming and it has estab-
lished a school of agriculture, which
has an experimental farm situated on
the sides of the mountains, about thir-
teen hundred feet above the sea. This
farm is between ~SOnsOnate, the sec
Ond city of the republic, and izalco.
1t is not far from Acajutla, upon a
little lakeland. on the highest part
OF which are the school buildings and
laboratory. Experiments are being
made there in coffee and uga plant
ing, and also in cattle breeding and
dairying. The school sends out bull
letins of information somewhat as our
agricultural department does, al
though on an infinitely. smaller scale.
Coffee and Indigo,
Coffee and indigo are the two chief
crops of Salvador. The coffee product
amounts to something like nine mil
lion pounds and it brings the highest
OF prices. The trees grow in all parts
OF the republic between 1900 and A.
ooo Feet above sea level. The plants
are grown in seed beds and are set
out when they have been well prout
ed. they begin to produce at. about
three years. 1t costs from 5 to 6 cents
a pound 10 raise the coffee and it sells
at retail from 10 cents to rs cents a
pound. e half the crop being con
sumed at home. / am told that that
which Is sent abroad brings very high
prices. and the Central Americans
think Salvador coffee better than thai
OF Brazil and superior to the coffee
or Jamaica or Java.
Indigo grows almost eyervwhere
and IT once was the chief EXPORT of
the ountry 1t is produced from a
plahC Whlcn nourisheS upon nearly All
SOILS The ground is first burnt over
and then scratched. with the Dlow
Inc SEED Is scattered broadcast and
me plants soon grow to the neigh
~. YOU mead. They are then cut and
the indigo extracted by then
IN water in watts. 1t takes abo,,t ono
nunored pounds of the green nlants
" four, five or six ounces
Vi anoigo. hi business Is not 81
pIontaoie as 1t was in the past. when
aS mocn as eighteen hundred tho1,-
sano pounds were produced in one
year: a value equal to about three
ra,ia,on collars. The output TO-DAY is
10 raai, ese: the 1nalgo dye having been
re or1ven out Of use by the chean
analine dyes. ~Ae o"eap
Ferfunlery from Salvador
another queer Salvador eYnor. 8.
Ire naisam OF Peru, whose name re-
mlnos me of that which San.+o.
rain1er chose for his log cabin honna
OUTSIDE Detroit. He called the nIane
roht Hlll, and when asked WIN 70.
pneo mat 1t was because it had No
n,;.ntan n no hill. This is the case
WIN oalsam OF Peru. r. does 80
come from Peru, but from Sa I've H.
ahd TINS Is about the only place whare
II rows Well This balsam 10 ,argo1v
used IN perfumery and medicines IT,
IS sometimes called cocoa balsan he
cause II was once shipped in cocoa
nuts. It really comes from . erea+
tree OF the tropical forests which
wnen full grown is over a yard thick
and from eighty to one hundred feet
nlgn. The tree has a white bark and
tne wood Is hard and durable. r has
Wnite blossoms and it's fruit ia mich
nke a bean pod. with a single seed
uuese trees grow in the forests and
~ Daisam is collected almost alto
Eet me by Indians. who tap the trees
IN the winter by scraping of the bark
- patcnes to the depth Of one-tenth
OF an inch. After this the scra ned
places are heated with burning orche
and tnen covered with scraps Of old
coeton cloth. The cloth sticks To the
: e n In a day or two the san has
soaked into it. The rags ara no~
.aken on and boiled In big iron pots
nney are then put under pressure ana
me oaisam juice squeezed out n
must now be refined and put up in
cans Tor the market. Tho product n
q g~rayish-red mass which salelis ike