Note 526 — Chapter CXIII

This excellent suggestion, which Cieza de Leon made more than three hundred years ago, has never been adopted by the indolent Peruvians. I am convinced that plantations, not perhaps of oak, but of larch, fir, and birch, might be successfully formed in the more sheltered ravines of the Collao, and of other treeless parts of the Andes, for the supply of timber and fuel. The winters, from May to September, are not nearly so cold as in Scotland, though very dry; and during the rainy season, though it is cold, there is plenty of moisture. The introduction of these plantations would change the whole face of the country, and the introducer would confer an inestimable blessing on the inhabitants.