The earth and its inhabitants The earth and its inhabitants .. earthitsinhabita293recl Year: 1893 EESOURCES OF PARAGUAY. 323 caa nana. But there are no longer any plantations, but only thickets of the wild plant, which is often recklessly cut down in order the more easily to gather the leaves. The yerbatcros, who have to make long journeys to these grounds, first dry the foliage and tender branchlets over a slow fire, and then reduce them to a powder when they are ready for the market. The decoction appears to act both as a stimulant and as a substitute for food, by retarding the progress of
The earth and its inhabitants The earth and its inhabitants .. earthitsinhabita293recl Year: 1893 EESOURCES OF PARAGUAY. 323 caa nana. But there are no longer any plantations, but only thickets of the wild plant, which is often recklessly cut down in order the more easily to gather the leaves. The yerbatcros, who have to make long journeys to these grounds, first dry the foliage and tender branchlets over a slow fire, and then reduce them to a powder when they are ready for the market. The decoction appears to act both as a stimulant and as a substitute for food, by retarding the progress of digestion. About half the yearly crop is required for the local consumption, the rest being exported. It is even claimed for maté that it stimulates the physical and mental powers, without any waste to the system. And herein, remarks De Bourgade, lies the secret of the preference shown by Americans for this beverage. It is not from any scientific theories, but from practical experience, that they have been convinced Fig. 138.—Yeeea Maté Regions of Paraguay and Beazil. Scale 1 ; 14,000 000 Yerba Maté. 310 Miles. of its immense superiority over tea and coffee. Coca also is just as available to them as the ilex; but while the latter has become as indispensable as manioc itself, coca has been rejected, and is now consumed only by a few Indian tribes and some residents in the mountain districts. Such a practical verdict in its favour proclaims its excellency ; it is a popular, as distinguished from a scientific, tribute to its virtues, and may well provoke the inquiry why the Old World has remained indijfferent, continuing to import tea from China and India, and coffee from Arabia and the Colonies, but neglecting the yerba maté of South America ? Yet the supply is adequate to all possible demands ; subject, however, at present, it must be owned, to the disadvantage that the yerba is under no well-organised system of cultivation.* * Faraguay, p. 21.
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