62 SELLING LATIN AMERICA 
mg the few vegetables and fruits required for 
home consumption. Sugar-cane, tobacco, 
tropical fruits and cotton would thrive in this 
country. Each one of these staples has been 
successfully raised, the cotton being something 
like our own famous Sea Island brand. 
A business, small in size, yet of great im 
portance, and restricted to this locality, is the 
production of oil of petitgrain, a form of 
orange perfume, much in use in European 
perfume houses as a base for toilet and flavor 
ing extracts. The essential oil is obtained 
in the most primitive manner and is always in 
great demand. 
A lace peculiar to the country, called 
“nanduti” or spider lace, is made by native 
women, and if properly commercialized 
might develop into a paying trade. 
The growing and curing of “Yerba Mate,” 
a native tea, used extensively in Paraguay, 
Uruguay, Brazil, Argentine and Chile, yields 
considerable income, but is never destined to 
become an article of great international com 
merce. The plant or shrub grows wild. The