“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.