1892 Drinks of the world

DRINKS.

2,92

whieh a row of plants is placed ;

but this is a modern

cultivation being the most

the terrace

innovation,

ancient. At the end of eighteen months the plants yield their first harvest, and continue to yield for up- wards of forty years. The first harvest is called qtiita calzoHy and the leaves are then picked very carefully, one by one, to avoid disturbing the roots of the young tender plants. The following harvests are called mitta (" tiijie " or " season*'), and take place three and even four times in the year. The most abundant harvest takes place in March, immediately after the rains ; the worst, at the end of June, called the Mitta de San Juan The third, called Mitta de Santos, is ia October or November. With plenty of watering, forty days suffice to cover the plants with leaves afresh. It is necessary to weed the ground very carefully, especially while the plants are young, and the harvest is gathered by women and children. The green leaves, called matu, are deposited in a piece of cloth which each picker carries, and are then spread out in the drying yard, called matu-caucka, and carefully dried in the sun. The dried leaf is called Coca. The drying yard is formed of slate flags, called pizarj'a ; and when the leaves are thoroughly dry, they are sewn up in cestos, or sacks, made of banana, leaves, of 20 lbs. each, strengthened by an ex- terior covering of bay eta, or cloth. ^ They are also packed in tambores of 50 lbs. each, pressed tightly down. Dr. Poeppig (writing in 1827-32) reckoned the profits of a Coca farm to be forty- five per cent. 1 In 1 86 1, the cesto of Coca sold at 8 dollars in Sandia. In Huanaco it was 5 dollars the aroba of 25 lbs.