ch is a native of
the higher plateaus. The Bolivian government has prohibited the
exportation of the live animals and is encouraging their production.

The agricultural resources of the republic are varied and of great
value, but their development has been slow and hesitating. The
cultivation of cereals, fruits and vegetables in the temperate and warm
valleys of the Andes followed closely the mining settlements. Sugar-cane
also was introduced at an early date, but as the demand for sugar was
limited the product was devoted chiefly to the manufacture of rum, which
is the principal object of cane cultivation in Bolivia to-day. The
climatic conditions are highly favourable for this product in eastern
Bolivia, but it is heavily taxed and is restricted to a small home
market. Rice is another exotic grown in the tropical districts of
eastern Bolivia, but the quantity produced is far from sufficient to
meet local requirements. Tobacco of a fair quality is produced in the
warm regions of the east, including the _yungas_ valleys of La Paz and
Cochabamba; cacao of a superior grade is grown in the department of
Beni, where large orchards were planted at the missions, and also in the
warm Andean valleys of La Paz and Cochabamba; and coffee of the best
flavour is grown in some of the warmer districts of the eastern Andes.
The two indigenous products which receive most attention, perhaps, are
those of quinoa and coca. Quinoa is grown in large quantities, and is a
staple article of food among the natives. Coca is highly esteemed by
the natives, who masticate the leaf, and is also an article of export
for medicinal purposes. It is extensively cultivated in the departments
of Cochabamba and La Paz, especially in the province of Yungas.

In the exploitation of her forest products, however, are to be found the
industries that yield the greatest immediate profit to Bolivia. The most
prominent and profitable of these is that of rubber-collecting, which
was begun in Bolivia between 1880 and 1890, and which reached a
registered annual output of nearly 3500 metric tons just before
Bolivia's best rubber forests were transferred to Brazil in 1903. There
still remain extensive areas of forest on the Beni and Madre de Dios in
which the rubber-producing _Hevea_ is to be found. Although representing
less value in the aggregate, the collecting of cinchona bark is one of
the oldest forest industries of Bolivia, which is said still to have
large areas