CHAPTER VII.
THE CULTIVATION OF COCA.[23]
The most recent account of the cultivation of Coca is given by Henry H. Rusby, M.D., who, for more than two months, was engaged in the study of the Coca plant and its products in the districts of Bolivia which produce the best quality of leaves. He says:—
“For the details concerning cultivation here presented I am chiefly indebted to Mr. Oscar Lohse, one of the most intelligent cultivators in this country, and proprietor of the Finca of San Antonio, two leagues from the town of Caroica, Yungas.
“The district of Caroica may be considered as fitly representing the remainder of Yungas, and Yungas as representing the principal Coca districts of this republic. The conditions of soil and climate may be briefly stated. Proceeding eastward from La Paz, itself somewhat more than ten thousand feet[24] above the sea, for a distance of four or five leagues, we reach the summit of the pass over the easternmost cordillera of the Andes, this cordillera having an average elevation in this immediate district of perhaps sixteen thousand feet. This ridge, always more or less snow-covered, cuts off a large portion of the westward-bound clouds, which are either precipitated in the form of rain before reaching the summit, or arriving there, are deposited in the form of snow, and then returned by means of rivulets to the valleys, chiefly of the eastern slope. It should be noted that in Northern Peru and Ecuador this cordillera is higher than here, so that the eastern slope in those regions is more profusely and regularly watered than here. From this pass, had we a direct road, we could travel in half a day, so steep is the descent, to the banks of the Caroica River, having an altitude of only two thousand four hundred feet. When we have descended to six thousand four hundred feet we should meet with our first Coca plantations, and after passing the two thousand foot level we should have left them principally or entirely behind. Within this four or five thousand feet, then, lie the cocales of Bolivia. No description can convey a perfect idea of the steepness of this luxuriant slope. Travel, entirely by riding-animals, is extremely difficult. There are only occasional places where we can readily leave the road, and here plantations are established. The hedge of coffee-plants at the roadside proves on examination to be the uppermost row of a plantation; and as we peer down among the shrubs we marvel that anyone can preserve his footing while cultivating or collecting the coffee. The scenery is, of course, magnificent, and of a different type, I should think, from that of any other part of the world. The mountains are too young to have lost to a great extent their ragged outline, yet softness is imparted by the richness of the vegetation. We stand among the coca plants and distinctly see another cocal nearly four thousand feet below us.
“The cultivated plants of the coca district are coffee, rice, cacao, sugar cane, tobacco, maize, cotton (the arborescent species), sweet potatoes, yuccas, and the ordinary garden vegetables. The principal fruits are oranges, bananas, cocoanuts, lemons (sweet and sour), citrons, grapes, chirimoyas, alligator pears, tumbas, pomegranates, grenadillas, figs, papayas, lukmas, melons, and pineapples, the last just introduced.
“The soil in such a broken country is, of course, very diversified, ranging from a very light decomposed shale or sandstone to a heavy blue or chiefly yellow clay.
“The rainy season begins in October, and continues until May or June. During this time the rains are copious and almost constant. During the succeeding two months there is scarcely a drop of rain, and during the next two there are only occasional showers.
“Such are the conditions under which the Coca grows in this section.
“When we come now to consider the methods of cultivation here adopted, we must be cautious about accepting them as the best, merely because they are generally followed here. It is to be remembered that the Bolivian system of agriculture has not received the attention that it should have had, and that it is very probable that reforms might be introduced in present methods.
“Nor is it proper to proceed concerning Coca-culture without a few words concerning what is meant by the ‘best quality’ of Coca-leaves. To a manufacturing chemist the best quality would mean the quality that would yield the largest percentage of crystallizable cocaine, obtainable in the easiest manner, while the same Coca might be considered for domestic consumption as representing one of the lower grades. It is highly probable that the amount of cocaine forms no element in the Indian’s estimate of the quality of Coca, no more than the percentage of nicotine establishes the quality of a particular grade of tobacco. Coca-leaves are classed in general by the Indians as ‘hajas dulces’ (sweet leaves) and ‘hajas amargas’ (bitter leaves). The former are made sweet by the abundance of alkaloids other than cocaine. While it is true that a greater abundance of these alkaloids is usually accompanied by a larger percentage of cocaine also, yet the variation in the amount of the latter is not so great as in the former; so that while in the sweet leaves the bitter taste of the cocaine is masked by the presence of the other alkaloids, in the bitter leaves its flavour is the predominant one. The presence, then, of these sweet alkaloids, as we may call them, translating the simple and expressive term of the Indians, determines the domestic value of the Coca, and all that is known of the best methods of cultivation is based on the production of the highest percentage of these alkaloids.[25] Experience may determine that for manufacturing purposes a very different line of principles of culture should be followed.