nary fibre is excelled only by the
sea-island cotton of the United States; the long-staple fibre of the
Piura is the best grown. The former is generally employed for mixing
with wool in the manufacture of underwear, and is sold in the United
States and Europe; the latter, used in the manufacture of thread and the
web of pneumatic tires, goes mainly to Great Britain.

Cane-sugar is a very large export crop, Great Britain, the United
States, and Chile being the principal customers. The area of coffee
production is growing rapidly. Coca-growing has become an important
industry, and the plantations aggregate about three million trees;[60] a
large part of the product is sent to the chemical laboratories of the
United States. A small crop of rice for export is grown on the coast.

The Amazon forest products yield a considerable revenue. Rubber and
vegetable ivory are the most valuable. Cinchona, or Peruvian bark,
however, is the one for which the state is best known; and there is
probably not a drug-shop in the civilized world that does not carry it
in stock.[61]

Cattle are grown for their hides, and of these the United States is the
chief purchaser. The wool of the llama, alpaca, and vicuna is used in
manufacture of the cloth known as alpaca, and the value of the shipments
to Great Britain usually exceeds one million dollars a year. In the
mining regions the llama is used as a pack-animal, and a large part of
the mine products reach the markets by this means of transportation. The
mines yield silver and copper; in the main the ores are exported to
Great Britain to be smelted.

The products already named are the chief exports; the imports are cotton
textiles, machinery, steel wares, and coal-oil. Great Britain has about
one-half the foreign trade; the United States controls about one-fourth.
_Callao_, the port of _Lima_, is the market through which most of the
foreign trade is carried on. Steamship lines connect it with San
Francisco and with British ports. _Mollendo_ is the outlet of Bolivian
trade. The railways are short lines extending from the coast.

=Ecuador.=--This state has but little commercial importance. The only
cultivated products for export are cacao, coffee, and sugar. The
first-named constitutes three-fourths of the exports, and most of it
goes to France. The land is held in large estates, and most of the
laboring people are in a condition of practical slavery. The
bread-stuffs consumed by the foreign po