The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-01-06

it is now W one-fftn OF
the whole pToeoktc and there IS
scarcely a live orchardist or market
gardener in our country who does not
nourish his crops with plant food from
Chile. / want to go out into the
desert and visit the mines. and tell
you how the nitrates look in ~
ground. ,
AS to the guiana islands, they are
scattered along the Pacific coa some
distance above where h nitrate oe-
sert begins. They are freQuenteo Dy
millions Of birds, and the dropp1ngs
from these have already produced
more than twelve million tons Of ma
nure as rich as that Of your
They have brought into the treasure
vaults Of Peru something over q oi!-
lion gold dollars, and although al
most exhausted are still yielding gu
anO.
On the Tops OF the Andes.
Some Of my los interesting letters
will be from the tops Of the Andes /
shall see them at their lowest at the
culebra cut when | pass through the
canal. and shall be near where they
are highest in south Chile when |
climb The slopes of Mount Aconcagua,
whose peak is more than four miles
above the sea. During my last visit
to South America l travelled by rail
| road over a pass in h Peruvia An
des which was higher than Mount
Blanc, and I shall now be able TO
cross the Andes by rail in several
other places. and make my way for
some distances down their east slopes.
| Americans have recently built a rail-
| road in Ecuador that will bring me
close to the volcanoes Of Cotopaxi n
ChimbOranZO, and on the highlands
Of Bolivia l shall visit Sorata ard Hi
mani, whose snowy peaks are nearer
the sky han any in North America
outside Alaska. A great part Of the
Andes is volcanic, and / shall likely be
able to describe a volcano in &C
ton.
An interesting part Of this journey
will be in the footsteps OF the Incas.
l shall see their old highway in Ecu
ador in Quito, and shall travel over
it later in Cuzco near the City Of the
Sun. That road was built long before
there was a paved highway in any
part of the North American CONT
nent, and l am tol hat parts of it
are in good condition today. Just be-
fore l left Washington. in a chat with
Mr.. Logan Waller Page of the bureau
Of public roads, he asked me to get
him pieces of the road metal and
ship them to him in order that they
may be tested with a view to new dis
coveries as to road material for ouI
United States highways.
) 1t was at CuZco tina the Incas had
their capital and there they worship
: ed the sun in a temple which was
: roofed with gold plate. It was from
that region tina PizarrO and the Span
, iards got their ship loads Of gold and
silver, and it is believed that vast
quantities were secreted by the Inca.
: and buried in lakes and other out OF
z the way places. I am told that there
! are many traditions IS to where these
S lost treasures lie. ! shall report upor
A these through my indian interpreter
. and | hope to give some idea of ths
e possible localities.
t The Mines # the Andes.
/ shall also write about the actua
live treasure vaults Of the highlands
e I shall go through the mining region
and show something Of het big thing
d now going on. The Andes are pep
pered with silver and gold from tn
h ! isthmus to the strait. and Of late sew
eral Of the republics have been ex
porting a S quantities Of copper an,
e tin. A large percentage Of all the til
now used in the world comes fron
= Bolivia, and the copper mines Their
are just at their beginning. Many 0
the old silver mines Of the Andes ar
q now yielding copper. This is SO @
e Cerro de Pasco, which is now bein
operated by American capital, an
IS also Of the silver mountains at Potos
h in Bolivia. AS to gold, Bolivia is on
: of the treasure vaults Of the universe
% It has already yielded over q, billio
y dollars in gold, and it is said to hav
L tin enough to supply the world. l
n some parts of the Andes there are a.
er so precious stones Columbia give
i us our most beautiful emeralds, an
S Brazil was the CHER source of GU
as diamond supply before the gree
re mines of South Africa came to b
known.
The Indians OF SOuth America.
E. Another field Of investigation wi
a. be the Indians Of South America. "
IN are prone to look upon our land {
s the chief home of the red man. Tt
ne truth is, the United states was ney.
ne thickly populated before the WIFI
man came, and its Indians never su
passed in number, it is said. mo