The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-03

furthur on.
 have already described the ride over the Peruvian desert from the to Arequipa. The journey from there to the top of the mountains is even more won derful You start from the level of Mexico City and wind your way around Mount Misti. which is more than 19,0O0 feet high, and at the same time you can see other mountains, such as Chachacani, which are more than four miles above the sea and which are covered with snow all the year around. Higher still there are mountains covered with glaciers and on the way up the valley to Cuzco at La Raya you see glaciers in the far distance, which must cover many square miles.
 The greater part of the way is through extinct volcanoes. The slope of Mount Misti is covered with great blocks of black lava and the mountains that wall this high valley in the region where now am have Niagaras of lava which seem to have been frozen they flow ed from the craters above down the slopes. In places you look over walls of such rock thousand feet high, and above
 
 more than four miles in height. At times these mountains rise up like a great white rampant of irregular shape, kiss ing the sky; and again they extend In sawtooth construction as far as your eyes can reach.
 The vegetation changes the moment you near the top of the Andes. As you climb the western slope at an altitude of two miles or more the grass begins to sprinkle the semi-arid hillsides and when you cross the pass and come down to the plateau you are in a region of sod cov- cred with tufts of wiry grass which are too coarse for anything but the llamas. The plateau itself is covered with flocks if sheep and alpacas. There are herds of cattle. and you see droves of llamas load cd with goods of one kind or another be- ing driven along. There are Indian will lages at every few miles, and in places the pampa is spotted with low mud huts roofed with straw, each of which Is the home of an Indian who grazes his al- pacas and llamas nearby. Everywhere on the sides of the valley are the remains of the cultivation of the 1ncas. There are terraces that run from the plateau for thousands of feet up the mountain. These terraces are walled with stone. and where possible the water was carried from level to level. In many places the terraced farms had no water and the crops grown depended upon the scanty rainfall
 And just here I want to give you an 1dea of the farming that goes on away m here on the roof of the world. The average altitude of the region refer to is 12.Oo0 or 13,OO0 feet above the sea, and 1t runs from that to more than 14,0Oo feet There are millions of acres of land in Peru with a climate in which white men can live They comprise a great part If the wide valley that runs north and south through the continent, and at this altitude they support hundreds of thou sands of Indians and tens of thousands s,f cattle and millions of alpacas, llamas nn nd sheep. The highest of the plains are covered with natve grasses, which are short and close to the earth Scat tered over them are the tufts of wire grass, the new sprouts of which are eat len by the stock and the coarser summed nv ali but the llamas. Here and there mar every Indian hut is small patch If potatoes or quinua or barley. and tt1ere Is no doubt but that the whole region might be plowed up and greatly \improved
 nd this brings me to the movement Tor the Improvement Of the high plateaus < of the Andes. which has been inaugurated 6y the Peruvian corporation, a British company that has charge of the railroads for the government. This institution has sent to the United States for one of its agr1culturai experts. and he is now ex- perimenting. here in different places to find out the best grasses and best grains : to be grown upon the plateau. The man chosen wae MT. Harry V. Harlan, the < >aeronimist, in the barley investigations 6f our Department of Agriculture. He came here seven monthr ago and is all ready making good progress. met MT. !, Harlan at Juliaca, and went with him to dome of the experiment stations. He has one little farm of four or five acres right