Of great importance is the manufacture of textiles, in which the Indians were so proficient in Inca days that their work is said never to have been surpassed. Now there are seven cotton factories, five of these at Lima, making 24,000,000 yards of cloth for the home market. Three thousand operatives are employed. Also there are five woolen factories, at Lima, Cuzco, and Arequipa. Although the Indians are illiterate and lacking in initiative they have a taste for mechanics as well as for agriculture and pastoral pursuits. They still weave and spin, making excellent ponchos and blankets. Education will be a developer. The Indian’s patience and skill should be utilized, his ambition roused, so that he may desire to live more comfortably. Higher wages and more varied wants for these people will produce more business and prosperity in all lines. INVESTMENTS Peru obviously offers very favorable opportunities in many lines: railway construction and varied works of engineering, irrigation, sanitation, development of electric power; agriculture, especially the raising of sugar and cotton along the coast, and of a variety of additional products in the montaña; mining of all kinds, especially coal; stock raising; all of these in many sections with a very desirable climate. Of stock, the raising of sheep for the export of wool would doubtless be most profitable. The grasses of the table-land are excellent fodder; the climate is cold enough to ensure heavy fleece but not so extreme as to be injurious in snow storms or in fair weather. By importing a few rams an expert in the business would be able to conduct it with large profit. The farmer may purchase land in the montaña at $1.00 an acre and up, according to location, or secure it on other terms arranged for immigrants. Rubber and timber lands are leased under special regulations. Fruit raising and poultry might be profitable in some places. There is an excellent chance for small factories, perhaps for large ones. In many cities of the North and West Coasts American hotels or boarding houses, if properly conducted, would have great success. CHAPTER XXIV BOLIVIA: AREA, HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, POPULATION, ETC.