to give an almost continuously cool or cold climate the year round—in the Central Andes above 15,000 feet. In such combinations of climate and pasture the finest wools are grown, but such combinations occur only at clevations one or two thousand feet below the snow line and far above the limit at which white populations can live permanently in large numbers.
The Bolivian government has attempted to build up the alpaca business in the Apolobamba region by selling a monop- oly of the wool industry. The concessionaire is the only person in the district who can take the property and animals of the Indian if the latter docs not meet his contractual obligation to deliver a certain amount of wool. It works out that the concessionaire is enabled to stock his several ranches with the beasts of defaulting creditors. ‘The concessionaire keeps a store and has a monopoly of the trade in alcohol in his district, his place of business being the port of entry, Puerto Acosto, or Huaicho, as it used to be called. To. obtain the wool he signs a contract with an Indian who is to deliver an agreed amount, say five pounds per head from a flock of two hundred, or a thousand pounds in all. This contract is signed by the corregidor, or subprefect, and stamped with a seal. The Indian obtains advances on his contract from the concessionaire. These consist of clothing and food, for in the best alpaca dis- tricts no vegetable food at all can be raised, not even potatoes. Supplies consist of chufio, quinoa, barley, wheat, corn, etc. The concessionaire agrees with the government in return for rights of ownership to four square leagues of land to stock it with 2500 model alpacas in three years. In return for this he obtains permanent title to the land at the end of three years. All that he produces or obtains from the Indians he ships out of Bolivia as Bolivian wool to Europe, and unlike other ex- porters he pays no export duty for twenty years. The govern- ment aids the enterprise further by laying no duty on wool going out of Puerto Acosta but requiring a heavy duty to be paid on wool leaving Cojata, a town of a thousand or more on the frontier where the alpaca is produced. By arrangement be- tween the two governments, Bolivian wool destined for over- seas consumption pays no duty on transit across southern Peru
