The republic—no longer such in name only—is governed under an enlightened constitution modeled after our own. The present administration has opened wide the doors to immigration and foreign capital, and the artificial barrier erected by her political system of the nineteenth century no longer exists as the complement to the natural barriers that have stood for four centuries between the northern and southern countries of South America.
Those who may be so fortunate as to obtain control of Paraguay’s highways, the Paraguay and Pilcomayo, and supplement them by extending its 155 miles of railway into a system that will develop the vast agricultural and mineral empire of central and southern Brazil and Bolivia, and carry the produce to the Argentine seaboard, will gain a prize unequaled in the railroad world, and make of Paraguay a country of first importance on the continent.
Throughout the country the forests are being cleared to make room for potreros (cattle ranches) and the growing agricultural industries. Yerbales are coming more and more under the scientific culture which greatly enhances the value of the country’s leading product, yerba maté, or Paraguay tea.
Paraguay is the namesake and chief producer of the famous yerba maté or Paraguay tea, which is the national drink—the cup of ceremony and popular tipple throughout the central part of South America below the coffee belt; that is, on the Argentine Campo, in Uruguay, Paraguay, the lower part of Brazil, Bolivia and Chile. So well adapted is the beverage to the climate that the German colonists forsake their beer and the European-Latins their sweet cordials for the stimulating and non-alcoholic native product.
The yerba leaf is prepared by steeping in boiling water, as in the case of the tea with which the rest of the world is familiar. The maté is the dried gourd in which the tea is brewed. Into the aperture left by removing the stem, a tube (the bombilla), made of reed or bone, is inserted and through this the drinker sucks the refreshing brew. Whenever the occasion offers “Toma usted maté?” is almost a form of greeting in the yerba maté countries, so universal is its popularity. Among the rich the maté and bombilla are fashioned in costly metals, but elsewhere the gourd and reed serve their purpose with equal, if not greater, satisfaction.
The ilex paraguayensis, to give the herb its botanical name, is an evergreen tree or shrub from twelve to twenty-five feet high, with bright green leaves clustered in a bushy mass that cause it from a distance to resemble the orange tree. Although much of the yerba maté is still obtained from the immense natural forests, the ever-increasing demand has made cultivation a necessity. Many plantations have been successfully laid out, and crops of leaves have recently been gathered with commercially profitable results. The scientific methods now being adopted in the yerbales (yerba plantations) of Paraguay to supplant the destructive system of the past will insure for this growing industry a rich return to the owners.
The drink is taken without the addition of condiment and for the most part hot, like the Japanese sake. It is stimulating and sustaining, and soothes instead of irritating the nervous system. Unlike the concoctions made from the coca leaf (cocaine), sugar cane (rum), pulque, sake, vodka and other stimulants stumbled upon by native peoples and become destructive habits, yerba maté has no deleterious effects either immediate or after prolonged use.
Dr. Lenglet, President of the International League of Pure Food, says of it:
“The noteworthy point of the effect of maté on the system is its stimulating action on the cerebro-spinal organs. Taken with sugar the first thing in the morning it is very wholesome. It gives great capacity to undergo fatigue and invigorates the brain, and although it prevents feeling hungry, one does not enjoy one’s meals any the less. It does not appear to affect the intestinal organs; the nervous system is, nevertheless, insensible to the organic losses caused by the want of nourishment which are made known by hunger.
“In maté is found one of the most important means to obtain a maximum of strength and energy. It can be compared to a reservoir of vitality.”