Panama to Patagonia

by Charles M. Pepper

The basis of the agriculture of Chile is the great central valley. This lies between the Cordillera of the Andes and the Coast Range. It begins at the hill of Chacabuco in latitude 33°, and extends to the estuary at the head of the Gulf of Ancud known as the Bay of Reloncavi, latitude 41° 30′. Santiago is in the plain at the upper end of the valley. At the lower end is the bed of lakes and gulf channels. The central valley is 580 miles long, and has an average of 31 miles in width, though in the northern section it is not more than 15 miles across, and at the Angostura de Paine in latitude 34° a stone may be tossed from one side to the other. The area is approximately 18,000 square miles.

In this valley are the chief centres of permanent and growing population, as distinguished from the floating population of the nitrate provinces. The region favors all kinds of farming, both temperate and semi-tropical, for the grape, the orange, and the apple are found together. It grows the products which supply the inhabitants of the whole country, and it also has a surplus for export. Wheat and barley are regularly shipped to England in steadily increasing quantities, the £250,000 worth of wheat which Great Britain received from Chile in 1904 having come from this district. Corn, or maize, and linseed also are exported, and some wool is sent abroad. The live-stock industry is a successful one, but its products are chiefly utilized for home consumption.

The central valley is capable of a very large extension of the area under cultivation. The total of land given over to the production of the cereals, alfalfa, and vegetables, is about 9,000,000 acres. One drawback to increase is the tendency of the land-proprietors to keep their holdings intact and to prevent a material addition to the number of small farmers. There are no vast single estates, as in the wheat-growing regions of the United States. But there are many large haciendas, whose owners are content to receive a relatively small return from them rather than sell a part in order to secure capital for developing the remainder. This question enters into the relation of the roto or peon to the State, though not in an acute degree.

When the government and the individual Chilean land-owners succeed in bringing a larger area under cultivation, it will be by means of the small farmers. They will add enormously to the productive resources. While the central valley may not be said to have anything like the present wealth of the deserts of Atacama and Tarapacá, with their saltpetre deposits, yet its founts of production are enduring, and they will broaden and spread while the nitrate beds are being exhausted. This is both an economic and a political fact of vast importance to Chile.

The forest lands in the southern provinces are being gradually developed. Here is another source of national riches, for timber on the Pacific coast is not plentiful, and southern Chile has forests which are capable not only of supplying her own demands, but also of supplementing the needs of neighboring countries. In the Provinces of Arauco, Valdivia, and Llanquihue, the exploitation of the native timber has caused a lessening of the quantity imported from Oregon and California.

Below the central valley is the territory of Magellan, stretching to the Straits and across to the Chilean section of Tierra del Fuego. It comprises 47,500,000 acres, a large portion of which is unusually well adapted to sheep-raising. At the close of 1904 there were 4,250,000 head of sheep in this region. The animals furnish a strong, silky white wool, and there is some commerce in sheepskins. The wool exports range from 120,000,000 to 140,000,000 pounds annually. Great Britain and the United States take the bulk of the merinos, while France shares with them the common and mixed wools. The value of the annual commerce in wool, hides, and skins is about $2,000,000. In a recent year the estimate was that $24,000,000 was invested in new enterprises, chiefly mining companies and cattle-ranches in the Magellan district.

Grape culture is both a profitable and a promising agricultural industry. The capital invested in it is estimated at $17,000,000 to $20,000,000 gold. The area under cultivation is 60,000 acres, and the vineyards have a production of 1,062,000 hectolitres. In a twelvemonth the value of the product was $3,250,000. The government encourages the industry by an export bounty on wines and grape alcohols.

Efforts have been made to introduce the cultivation of beet root into Chile, and government favor has been shown these projects. Yet it is very doubtful whether the outcome is worth the forced aid necessary to nurture the beet-root industry. It is more profitable for Chile to follow along the lines of the agricultural products which do not require a highly artificial stimulus.[14]

14 A different view is taken by Chilean authorities. An article in the Boletin de la Sociedad de Fomento Fabril (Bulletin of the Manufacturers’ Association) stated:

“The soil and climate of Chile indicate that the sugar industry would prosper in the Republic, if properly exploited, not only to the extent of supplying the domestic needs of the nation with that important product of prime necessity, but also in such quantities as would leave a considerable surplus for export to foreign markets. The sugar beet is one of the tubers that flourish most luxuriantly in the lands of the central zones of the Republic. In addition to the natural adaptability of the soil and climate of Chile for the growth of this tuberous root, the country also possesses deposits of nitrate and guano which are recognized to be the best and most appropriate fertilizers in the cultivation of this highly saccharine-producing tubercule.”