The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-11

and in another they were stamping the tea into the bags with machines that made me think of so many dumb bells. I asked as to the value of the tea and was told. that it sells here for about 20 cents gold a kilogram. This would be about 8 cents a pound.
 Some of this tea is now sold In the United States. It can be drunk either hot or cold, and the common American way of using it Is to brew it. just as we brew Japan or China tea. Here in South America the tea is prepared by placing two or three spoonfuls of the powdered leaves in hollow egg shaped gourd or mate cup and pour ing boiling water upon 1t. After a few moments it is ready for use. It is then sucked through a tube, called a bonn billa, which admits the liquid, but keeps out the dregs Many like it so he. that the brass or silver bombilla almost burns ones lips as 1t passes in to the mouth. The ordinary cup will hold about four or five ounces of liquid, lot much more than an after-dinner -cuffee cup. The gourd is stained jet black to hold the heat. The bombilla Is about the size of a thermomete tube or a lead pencil and it has a bulb on the end about the size of hazel nut. Tbe bulb is perforated with holes, so small that the powder cannot go into them and so far apart that the liquor cal not be rapidly sucked. One can put a second and even a fourth and fifth allowance of hot water to one charge of tea, as the tea swells and continues to give off it's strength for sometime Some drink mate with milk. In this case they pour hot milk on the yerba leaves, and others add sugar to taste.
 The chief Paraguay tea factory of Asuncion has recently passed into the hands of the Farquhar syndicate. This is an organization of American and English capitalists, the head of which Is Percival Farqunar of York. Pa. The syndicate has large yerba forests and it employs several thousand hands. IL has also timber lands and it is sup rosed 10 be one of the chief owners of the Paraguay Land and Cattle com Tary which owns tract of country alm ost as big as Massachusetts, and has a capitalization of a million and a half dollars. The syndicate also con- trols the Paraguay Central railroad frd the electric light and tramway system of Asuncion as well. It Is also
  In Matto Crosse, Brazil, and Is coE- r racted with the Brazil Railway com rany. which is pushing it's lines west ws I'd into the highlands of Matte Crosso. I am told the company has also investigated the oil regions ei eastern Bolivia.
 This will give some idea of the inter. ests Americans are beginning to acquire in this part of the world. The New York and Paraguay company has about l,oo.V" acres of land in the Chaco It has built a little town in which it has company store school. postofice and jail If has also hotel and public bakery The police service is authorized by the Paraguayan government but the com pany pays the policemen, and so 1t Is su' preme In it's locality. This company is exploiting some of it's quebracho forests It has built a railroad about 25 miles long to bring out the timber and this Is to be extended. The locomotives have painted upon them the American flag anc Paraguayan flag crossing each other ant the little steamer which they have or