Coca and Cocaine

by William Martindale

“I have made a large number of assays tending towards elevations, soils, exposures, seasons, ages of plants, and of leaves, different varieties, wild and domestic, different parts of the plant, and various modes of drying and packing. The results will be embodied in a future monograph, mere passing references being made to them for the present. I have about concluded that the percentage of the sweet alkaloids varies inversely as the amount and continuousness of moisture that the plant receives. Thus, the Peruvian, Ecuadorian, and Brazilian Coca, which, as I have stated, is much more copiously and regularly watered than the Bolivian, is markedly inferior, so that Bolivia regularly exports about one-eighth of her crop to those countries. I am inclined to think that the greater breadth and thinness of the northern leaf may be partly due to the greater water-supply and the consequent greater degree of evaporation. Again, the Indian always seeks the Coca grown at the higher elevations, where the humidity is much less and more irregular than in the districts along the rivers. We are thus obliged, for reasons to be elaborated in the future, to regard these alkaloids as preserving a sort of a balance of moisture, by which the plant stores up during the wet weather a concentrated supply of water, which may be very slowly yielded up during a time of need.

“Having thus chosen a high altitude, the next thing is to select a soil. A rivalry exists between a yellow clay and a hill-side soil rich in vegetable matter. My assays have yielded the best results (as to total alkaloids) from soils of the latter class, and I am inclined to think that those who prefer the former soil do so because it yields a somewhat larger crop.

“The ground for the nursery-bed is prepared during the latter part of the dry season by breaking it up very thoroughly to the depth of a foot or more. The fruits mature during the early part of the rainy season, December and January. They are red, and consist of a fleshy outer portion and a shell-like inner portion, which encloses the single seed. These people suppose that the germ cannot escape from the shell if planted in its natural condition, and they have continued for hundreds of years to deposit the seeds as soon as gathered in a shaded place, in layers an inch or more deep, and covered with a thin layer of decaying leaves, or similar substance. The heat generated by the decomposition of the fleshy pericarp serves to induce germination, and the embryo bursts from its bony covering. This growth unites them in from eight to fourteen days into a solid mass, which is broken up into small pieces and planted in furrows in the nursery. In this process very many of the sprouts are broken off and the plants destroyed. Mr. Lohse has adopted the plan of sowing the seeds broadcast as soon as gathered, and covering with a little earth, or, better, a layer of banana leaves or decaying vegetable matter. Germination requires from eight to twelve days longer, but all the plants are saved. In either case, a covering of brush or straw must be placed over the nursery, at first only three or four inches above the surface, and elevated to six or seven inches, as the plants grow. Usually this elevation is repeated once more.

“All this taking place during the rainy season, the plants have reached a good size before the advent of the dry weather, and so do not call for any artificial water-supply. Advantage is taken of the ensuing dry season to clear the land and prepare the ground for the new cocal. On the manner in which this is done depends much of the future well-being of the plants. The ground should be thoroughly powdered to the depth of two, and, if possible, three feet, all roots and large stones being removed. On these steep slopes it is necessary to terrace, the terraces being supported by stone walls, the stones laid dry. The width of the terraces, according to the slope, varies from several feet, with a number of rows of plants, to much less than the height of the wall, only a single row of plants being admissible. It is here generally believed that shade tends to the production of the best quality of leaves; so the cocales are planted thickly with a small broad-topped leguminous tree related to the St. John’s bread, but whose name I cannot at this moment recall. There is no doubt that this is a mistake. I have made repeated comparative assays of shade-grown and sun-grown leaves from adjoining plants, and invariably found the latter much richer in total alkaloids. I judge the custom to have arisen from two considerations. There is, as I have stated, a period of two or three months when the plants receive no rain, and then these trees afford a protection from the fierce heat. Secondly, shade conduces to the production of a large, smooth, beautiful leaf, of elegant colour, and thus adds to the appearance of the product. The terraces being thus prepared, on the advent of the permanent rainy season, the plants, now from 8 to 12 inches high, are transplanted, being set from one-half to six inches apart, according to the ideas of the haciendero. From this time until the first leaves are picked, the greatest care must be taken to keep the soil thoroughly stirred and free from weeds. The plants having been transferred in October or November of one year, the first picking is made in March or April of the second following year, one year and a half from the time of transplanting, or two and one-half from the seeds. In case an insufficient space has been prepared, the remaining plants are often left until the following year, and then transplanted, the operation being much more dangerous to the life of the plants.

“The chief danger of picking the leaves earlier than the period indicated above is not the strain upon the vitality of the young plant, as many of the leaves drop off themselves, but because it is almost impossible to avoid breaking off the very tender tips of the twigs, the result being fatal to many plants. Immediately after this first picking, fresh leaves develop with great rapidity, and in July or August of the same year the plant flowers for the first time. The lovely white flowers, if undisturbed, remain from three to six days; but from the very first they are dislodged by the slightest jar, the corolla falling entire, although it is morphologically polypetalous. The fruit ripens in December and January.

“During the first few years the percentage of alkaloid increases rapidly, reaching its maximum at or before the age of ten years. At the age of twenty it begins to diminish, but with extreme slowness, so that the plants are practically in their prime up to the age of thirty-five or forty. It is probable that the decline is then due rather to the exhaustion of the soil than of the vitality of the plant. Fertilisation of the soil has never been resorted to. It is probable, as suggested by Mr. Lohse, that as much can be done for the Coca in this way as has been done for other plants.

“A Coca harvest is called a mita, an Indian word meaning a division or drawing of lots, and there are from three to five in a year, according to the season. The time of picking is determined solely by the condition of the leaves. When they have become mature they turn yellow if in the dry season, and brown if in the rainy, and within eight days at the outside will fall to the ground and be lost. As soon as the mita is over, the ground is cleared from weeds, and, under an ignorant notion that further cleaning is injurious, is left undisturbed until after the next mita. But Mr. Lohse has tried the plan of keeping the ground clean, with the result, thus far, of receiving the next crop in little more than one-half the time required by his neighbours. No irrigation is resorted to during the dry season. Although it is possible that good might result, at least to the welfare of the plant and the size of the crop, I suspect that after a long time an abundant and steady supply of water would result in a decrease in the amount of alkaloids. Mr. Lohse has tried the experiment of mulching at the end of the wet season with a few inches of banana leaves or other refuse, with excellent effect upon the plants during the succeeding dry season.

“This plant is subject to only two diseases of any importance. The first is taja, which I suppose to be the result of a fungus which attacks the undeveloped leaves and tender twigs. It is said by some to be caused by careless picking, in which the twigs are broken. By others it is said to result from the planting of seeds taken from young plants. The only remedy is to remove and burn the diseased portions. The second disease, if such it can be called, is the ravages of a caterpillar called “ulo,” which makes its appearance in December, and destroys the crop so quickly that it admits of no remedy.

“The method of picking and drying the Coca has been so often and so well described of late that it is not necessary to dwell upon it. Coca picking is a profession to which the children are trained from a tender age. The leaves are picked singly, both hands being employed with a rapid alternating motion, which strips a twig in an instant. Great care is taken to avoid breaking the twigs, and the young leaves are not picked. Little sacks are tied about the waist, or the women’s aprons are pinned or sewn into the required form. They are then transferred to larger sacks, which must be filled and emptied with great promptness, or the leaves will become heated and turn black.

“The price here paid for picking is a Bolivian dollar, equal to about seventy-one cents United States currency, or three shillings English, for each thirty pounds, which, when dry, will weigh about twelve pounds.