Industrial and commercial South America

by Annie S. Peck

The alpaca wool is much superior to that of the llama and better than that of the sheep; if the animals were rationally bred on a large scale the business should be extremely profitable. The animal has shorter legs than the llama which it resembles; it is never used as a burden bearer. The alpaca flourishes on the Titicaca Plateau and in higher, cold and solitary mountain sections, among seed bearing grasses where snow falls instead of rain. It requires better forage than the llama. Pure water is an absolute essential. Their long fleece, sheared once in two years, is always in great demand; a fleece weighs 10-15 pounds. The alpacas, numbering probably 200,000, are tended by Indians whose patient endurance qualify them in a measure, but who need instruction to supervise them with more intelligent care. There are vast lands suitable for their breeding and culture, and regions where sheep, donkeys, goats, and cattle may be raised. None of these industries is practised except in a small way, though land, suitable fodder, and climate are all of the best.

Stock raising is carried on to a limited extent only, though conditions for raising horned cattle are said to be ideal on the llanos of the southeast, where vast natural prairies alternate with forests, and many wild cattle exist. The large possibilities of this region will undoubtedly be utilized before many years. Difficulty in reaching markets is the great present drawback, but Argentine capitalists have looked over the eastern lowlands and may find early means for their exploitation. On the higher lands also are sections where the business may be carried on to advantage. As at present only ordinary stock is raised with no care in breeding, merely to supply local needs for meat, there is need of imported cattle and better methods, as is the case with sheep. Figures given for cattle are 800,000 head, of sheep 1¹⁄₂ million. Many more of the latter should be raised in some sections of the plateau region. Mutton is more of a staple food, largely used, dried and salted, by the Indians. Thus prepared it is called chalona; dried-beef is called charque. The cultivation of Siberian grasses on the plateau is suggested. Few hogs are raised, although many districts are well adapted to them.

Agriculture

In agriculture Bolivia has enormous possibilities, but at present small production. About 5,000,000 acres are under cultivation. With the varying altitude and climate the vegetable products are similar to those of the preceding countries, many of these spontaneous, a few cultivated. The latter are almost solely for internal consumption. On the plateau grow barley, quinua, and potatoes, the last, when frozen called chuño, are the basis of the Indians’ diet; barley is much used for fodder; quinua, a very nutritious millet, easy to cultivate and hardy, in the form of meal among the plateau Indians takes the place of wheat and corn, which do not grow at this altitude. In the valleys below there is plenty of corn, from which is made the Indians’ favorite drink, chicha, though they will readily drink plain alcohol of poor quality when they can get it. Wheat and rice are raised in eastern Cochabamba, admirable coffee in the yungas, cacao, and coca; none in sufficient quantity to supply the home market except coca. Some coffee is exported but more is imported from Brazil and Peru. All needful supplies could be provided in one or another part of the country if population and means of transport existed.

Other Products. Cacao is less cultivated than coffee, though raised in two departments. Trees are growing untended in the Rio Madidi and Madre de Dios sections. Sugar cane is cultivated in Santa Cruz and elsewhere, but most of it is used for making aguardiente, and molasses or other syrup. More than 200,000 gallons of alcohol come annually from Santa Cruz. Rice also is grown in this Department giving two harvests a year. It might be cultivated in other sections. Tobacco of excellent quality thrives in many places, but not enough is raised for home consumption. Viticulture is slightly practised with primitive methods. Fruits of many varieties as in Peru are raised, including especially fine oranges. Various vegetables are grown but in these lines the development is slight and poor.

Coca alone is exported among agricultural products, chiefly to Chile and Argentina. Cultivated also in Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, the chief centre is in the yungas of La Paz. The leaf is richer in alkaloid than the Peruvian, as I myself noted, but as yet it has not been so much exported to Europe on account of its higher price. The plantations are in terraces on the mountain slopes between 5000 and 7000 feet altitude. In the yungas the bushes are usually three or four feet high, but may grow to seven or eight. A small crop may be gathered 18 months after planting, but only in four or five years are they in full leaf. Three times a year the leaves are gathered, and with good care the plantations will last half a century. The leaves are picked by hand, dried, and stored in a dry place, later packed in bales and pressed. Properly used the chewing of coca in the highlands may be a blessing. Carried to the excess usual among the Indians it is a curse, as it is where here used in drinks sold at the soda counter, creating a habit as vicious as that of alcohol or opium. For the cultivation of cotton on the lowlands there is much suitable soil and climate.

Forestry

Of forestal products Bolivia contains all those found in the other sections of the Amazon basin, varieties of timber, medicinal plants, etc.; but none at present is of commercial value for export except quinine, manufactured from cinchona bark, and rubber.

Rubber. The rubber industry of Bolivia is second to that of minerals. In amount of this export the country is believed to be second in South America to Brazil, though little has been touched of the vast territory capable of its production. Sir Martin Conway estimated the rubber trees of the Beni district as 50,000,000. There are four zones of rubber producing country, one in the extreme north near the Acre Territory of Brazil, with outlet from the port and custom house of Cobija; second, the greater part of Colonias exporting through the national custom house of Villa Bella, by Villa Rica at the confluence of the Abuna and the Madeira, or by lesser ports; third, the Department of La Paz, the rubber going out by Lake Titicaca and Mollendo; fourth, Beni, Santa Cruz, and Cochabamba, the rubber from the north going out by Guajará Merím or Villa Bella, that farther south by Puerto Suarez on the Paraguay or by Yacuiba, and from the west by Oruro and Antofagasta. The rubber of the region is chiefly that called fine Pará, most of it exported through that port and being of the best quality. The latex of the hevea is the source; sernamby is second quality made of the residue of the finer quality mixed with bark. The caucho from the castilloa elastica is little exploited on account of few laborers and expensive transport. With the opening of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway in 1912 better facilities were secured, this railway having been built a distance of 207 miles along the Brazilian shore to avoid the bad rapids on the two rivers. The flooding of the market with Malay and Ceylon rubber seriously affected Bolivian production and export, but these have recently increased. With the forming of plantations in this section, a work which an American company has undertaken, the rubber should be better able to compete with that of Ceylon, as its superior quality is known. The fact that the Bolivian export tax is lower than that of Brazil gives the former an advantage.

In the Department of Cochabamba are great quantities of maniçoba trees producing rubber known as ceará, of good quality but not the best. It might be cultivated in hilly regions and on banks of streams of the Yungas and other valleys in the Department of La Paz. The lot of the seringueiros, the rubber workers, is bad; it may and must be bettered if the industry is to continue. The establishing of plantations will be a great improvement, but some amenities of life might be made available even in the ordinary forest.