To work with their hatchets went the peons, and in less than a couple of hours they had gathered a mountain of branches, and piled them up in the form of a haystack. Both of them then filled their large ponchos with the coveted article of commerce in its raw state, and they marched off with their respective loads. Having deposited this first load within the precincts of the colony, the peons returned for a second, and so on till they had cleared away the whole mass of branches and of leaves cut and collected during that day. When I returned to the colony I found the peons coming by two and two, from every part of the valley, all laden in the same way. There were twenty tatacuas, twenty barbacues, and twenty pies of the yerba cut and ready for manufacture. Two days after that the whole colony was in a blaze, tatacuas and barbacues were enveloped in smoke; on the third day all was stowed away in the shed; and on the fourth the peons again went out to procure more of the boughs and leaves."--(_Letters on Paraguay_, vol. ii. p. 142-147). Each peon or laborer, going into the woods for six months, can procure eight arrobas, or 200 lbs. of yerba a day. This, at the rate of two rials, or 1s. for each arroba, would make his wages per day 8s.; and this for six months' work, at six days in the week, would produce to the laborer a sum of £57 12s. Wilcockes, in his "History of Buenos Ayres," published in 1807, states:--"Though the herb is principally bought by the merchants of Buenos Ayres, it is not to that place that it is carried, no more being sent thither than is wanted for the consumption of its inhabitants and those of the vicinity; but the greatest part is dispatched to Santa Fe and Cordova, thence to be forwarded to Potosi and Mendoza. The quantity exported to Peru is estimated at 100,000 arrobas, and to Chile 40,000. The remainder is consumed in Paraguay, Tucuman, and the other provinces. It is conveyed in parcels of six or seven arrobas, by waggons, from Santa Fe to Jugui, and thence by mules to Potosi, La Paz, and into Peru proper. About four piastres per arroba is the price in Paraguay, and at Potosi it fetches from eight to nine, and more in proportion as it is carried further." SUGAR. Sugar is obtained from many grasses; and, indeed, is common in a large number of plants. It is procured in Italy from _Sorghum saccharatum_; in China, from _Saccharum sinense_; in Brazil, from _Gynerium saccharoides_; in the West Indies, from _saccharum violaceum_; and in many other parts of the world from _S officinarrum_. The last two are commonly known as sugar canes, and they are generally considered as varieties of a single species, _S. officinarum_, which is now widely spread over different parts of the world.