The cultivation of Coca trees is begun by sowing the seed in beds called Almazigos. As soon as the plant appears it is protected from the heat of the sun by means of screens and matting; when it reaches a height of from 40 to 50 centimetres, it is transferred to furrows 18 centimetres in length by 7 in depth, care being taken that each plant is separated from its neighbor by a distance of a foot.
During the first year maize is sown in the interspaces, rapidly overreaching the shrub, and taking the place of the screens and mats.
The growth of the shrub is rather rapid, reaching its full height in about five years. But the time when it becomes productive precedes that at which it attains its complete height by about 3½ years after being planted. After that, when the season has been especially damp, it yields as often as four times a year.
BRANCH OF COCA,
as grown in a hot-house.
Attempts have been made to acclimatize it in Europe, but so far without success. As early as 1869 the cultivation of it was tried in the Botanical Garden of Hyères, but no satisfactory result was obtained. We presented, in 1872, two samples to the appreciative and learned director of the Garden of Acclimatization of Paris, M. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, and notwithstanding all the care taken of the young plants, they failed to reach their full growth. Several frail Coca plants may be seen in the conservatories of the Jardin des Plantes de Paris, in the Botanical Gardens of London, of Brussels, etc., likewise at several great horticulturists' of Gand, notably Van Houten's. As may be seen by the large colored engraving[2] and by the branch engraved above, these specimens of Erythroxylon Coca are very far from giving an idea of the plant growing in the open air, in a soil and under a temperature that are favorable to its development, as shown by the leaves of Peruvian Coca, illustrated above, and which come from one of the newest haciendas of Santa-Anna, belonging to M. M.-P. Concha, bordering on the territory of a savage tribe of Antis or Campas, on the Urubanba river, which joins the Amazon in latitude 12° S., longitude 75° W.
GATHERING OF COCA.
The plant begins to yield when it is about a year and a half old.