Industrial and commercial South America

by Annie S. Peck

The cane has more than 14 per cent sucrose, often 16 or 17 per cent. The returns have nowhere been surpassed; the production to the acre is double that of Cuba, where the average is 23-24 tons, in Peru 45-50 tons. At Cartavio, an estate of 29,000 acres in the Chicama Valley, they once cut 79.8 long tons of cane per acre from a field of 85 acres. This had 15.24 per cent sucrose and gave 12 tons of sugar an acre, a probable record. The grinding capacity is 1000 metric tons in 23 hours. In 1917 they ground 240,000 tons making 34,000 tons of sugar, mostly white granulated. The Casa Grande in the same valley, said to be the largest estate in the world, has a population of 11,000. Churches, schools, hospitals, and “movies” are provided for the work people, and the luxuries of modern life for owners and superintendents. In the montaña sugar cane is said to grow to a height of 30 feet and once planted to persist for a century. One writer speaks of two or three crops from one planting, but nine years without replanting is not unusual on the coast.

In the year 1915-16, 100,000 tons were exported from Salaverry, more the year following; half as much from the smaller port of Huanchaco near by. Production in Peru reached 400,000 tons in 1918. The plantation Tambo Real, on the Santa River near Chimbote, was recently sold for $1,750,000. Just back of the port is plenty of good sugar land, now desert but easily irrigable. As the nitrates have never been washed out of the land by rain, the soil is of extraordinary fertility; with irrigation the cane receives the precise amount of water required and at the right season. Back of Samanco are two large sugar estates, one belonging to the British Sugar Company, which has a larger at Cañete in the south, producing long ago 30,000 tons a year. One estate had years ago 22 miles of tramway which was to be increased. In some places small farmers owning or renting land sell their cane to sugar mills. Most of the estates have the best of machinery. In 1911 $100,000 worth of sugar machinery was imported into one Department, Lambayeque. Labor is cheaper than in Cuba, formerly 60 cents a day, but with housing and other perquisites. Much sugar has been exported to Chile; recently to Europe and the United States. Some years ago sugar could be sold at a port at a profit for 1.5 cents a pound, more recently at 2.5 cents. There is still a field for investment in desert land, suitable for those with sufficient capital to arrange for irrigation. About 600,000 acres are now devoted to sugar.

Cotton. Native to the country is cotton, and Peru has its own special variety, Gossypium Peruvianum. It is so soft and fine that it is called vegetable wool, and it is much used for weaving underwear, stockings, etc., with wool, which it even improves, as the cloth is less liable to shrinkage than all wool. This variety grows to a height of 10-16 feet, giving a first small crop in eight months, but not reaching its best until the sixth year. It holds out well through drought, requiring but one irrigation yearly. The trees are planted 15 feet apart, the interspace being occupied with vegetables and corn. No ploughing is necessary and two crops a year are obtained. With the names full rough and moderate rough it is mixed with wool for textile manufacture. Piura is its special habitat, but it grows well in Ica at the south.

The Egyptian, the Sea Island, or the ordinary American are preferred by some growers on account of their earlier development. The Egyptian is cultivated in Ica from the shore to 60 miles inland, also in Lima; the Sea Island and the Peruvian Mitafifi, similar to the Egyptian, near Huacho and Supe; the smooth cotton from ordinary American seed anywhere. The Egyptian, also called Upland, grows to about four feet, yielding two or three years, beginning six months after sowing. It needs several waterings, but has an advantage in being free from weevil blight. This and the ordinary American are the most popular varieties. Peru is twelfth among world producers, needing only more irrigated land for greatly increased production. There is water enough but labor and capital have been wanting. All conditions are favorable as in Egypt. The length of the various cotton fibres is given as: Sea Island, 1.61 inches; Egyptian, 1.41; Peruvian, 1.30; Brazilian, 1.17; American upland, 1.02; Indian, 0.8.

Coffee. An important product is coffee, the best said to be grown in the sierra region; but the finest I ever drank was raised on a small plantation back of Samanco, where it was roasted, ground, and made within the hour, of course pulverized and dripped as universally in South America. In the deep valleys at the east also, excellent coffee is grown: in Puno, in the Chanchamayo and the Perené valleys, called the montaña by the sierra people, in Huánuco farther north, in the Paucartambo valley of Cuzco south, as well as in the Pacasmayo and other coast sections. Five hundred plants are set to the acre, 800 in the Perené, which produce each 2 pounds annually. Even with a low price for coffee its production is profitable there, in spite of the one time $60 a ton freight rate to Callao; large profits are made at good prices. After supplying home consumption there is a considerable export.

Cacao. The production of cacao, which grows wild in the montaña, should be greatly increased. The Department of Cuzco produces a particularly fine article with exquisite taste and aroma, which brings a higher price than that of Brazil or Ecuador, though little known outside of the country. In the Perené Valley a plantation of 200,000 trees has been set out. Vast tracts in the Departments of Amazonas and San Martín and in the Province of Jaen are also suited to its growth.

Coca. The culture of coca is important, but more limited as to future development since its medicinal use should not be greatly increased and its general use not at all. The plant is a shrub, usually six feet high, cultivated in the districts of Otuzco (the most important) and Huamachuco (Libertad), Huanta (Ayacucho), Cuzco, and Huánuco. It grows best in valleys of 3000 to 7000 feet altitude, where the temperature varies from 60° to 85°, in clayey but not marshy ground, with iron but no salt. It needs frequent rains and humidity. Three or four crops may be picked annually, the first in 18 months; the yield continues 40 years. Care is needed in picking the leaves and in drying. A great quantity is consumed by the Indians, and some is exported to Europe and the United States, both as dried leaves for making wines, tonics, etc., and for the extraction of alkaloid; also as cocaine for the making of which over 20 small factories exist in Peru. Chewing coca leaves is of great service on the plateau for necessary and unusual exertion, but injurious and stupefying when its use is continuous.

Rice is grown in the north in Lambayeque and in the Pacasmayo Valley of Libertad. With one flooding and little ploughing the crops are produced annually, 46,000 tons in 1917. A little is exported but more is imported. The two varieties grown are Carolina and Jamaica. The straw is not utilized.

Fruits of various kinds may be grown in all the coast valleys, but south of Lima the culture, especially of grapes, is more advanced. Even in poor years it is said that the grape crop is superior to the European average; but too little attention has been paid to improving and extending the industry. The vineyards are small and combined with the other interests of a hacienda. The grapes are grown on stocks about eight feet apart, supported first by canes, later by trellises on adobe columns. Nine hundred gallons of wine an acre is an average yield. Italia and Abilla are cultivated for white wines, Quebranta, Moscatel, and others for red; the former of these two being most prolific and generally grown. A pink Italia is a fine table fruit. Wines cheap and good are manufactured to the amount of 2,200,000 gallons yearly, and 770,000 gallons of pisco, made from white grapes, also quantities of alcohol. The sugar of the montaña is used to make aguardiente or rum; in several coast districts a finer quality is made from grapes and is probably what in some sections is called pisco.

Peru is rich in the variety of fruit possibilities, but grapes and olives are the only ones cultivated in a large way, with a view to commercial profit. Olives grown in the south from imported trees are said to excel those of Spain or California. About 70,000 pounds are exported. The yield of oil is about 30 per cent; not enough is made for home consumption. Large possibilities exist in this direction. Other fruits grown are of course oranges, bananas, melons, pomegranates, paltas, or aguacates, or as we call them, alligator pears, fine as properly eaten, the half fruit with salad dressing inside; chirimoias, when in perfection nothing better; strawberries nearly all the year around at Lima, more like the wild fruit with delicate flavor; prickly pears, peanuts, pears, cherries, etc.