Oases in the Desert
Perhaps it is partly because they stand out in such sharp contrast with a barren background that such northern valleys as that of the Lluta, with pretty Arica town at its mouth, appear to be of such enchanting loveliness. In other regions, burning ochre deserts stretch away in dazzling sunlight, and suddenly one comes upon the tender lime-green fields of the Copiapó River; the emerald maize and alfalfa of the Loa; the Pica Vale, a strip of deepest green studded with millions of the golden globes of ripe oranges; or the exquisite Elqui and Huasco in the month when loads upon loads of grapes, peaches and figs are ripe. In every dip of the land where a stream flows down from the Andes, gardens and orchards bloom; careful intensive cultivation is the rule in north Chile, where the farming industry has received an impetus since the nitrate fields swarmed with industrial camps, ready to pay big prices for every pound of fresh fruit or vegetables.
This cultivation of orchards in the desert is reviving enthusiastically, but is no more than the restoration of ancient arts; before the day of Spanish occupation irrigation was extensively practised, and we know from the large burial grounds discovered near what are today small villages that certain parts of the arid country formerly supported considerable populations—as at Calama, at Chiu-Chiu, or at Arica itself. The desolation of former cultivated districts is sometimes ascribed to the war-expeditions of the Incas, sometimes to the destruction of irrigation works by the Spaniards, sometimes to the action of earthquakes which have diverted rivers from their original courses, and is certainly to be attributed in many cases to the character of the streams, rushing from mountain heights with tremendous force, washing away fields and defences, and leaving wide, stony and sterile beds to mark their ruinous course.
Tacna province, with Arica as the port and Tacna City as the capital, is looked upon hopefully today as a source of supply of sugar and cotton for Chilean mills; both these commodities are now imported. With sufficient water, this little province of 40,000 inhabitants can produce also enough tobacco for Chile’s internal consumption. The Sociedad Industrial Azucarera de Tacna, formed at the end of 1920, hopes to plant 8000 hectares in sugarcane, to obtain from the harvest of each hectare ten tons of sugar, and thus to fill the Chilean demand for 80,000 tons of sugar per year. Apart from this enterprise, whose results are awaited with interest, a number of small landholders already produce a little sugar, and find a ready sale for the almonds, olives, walnuts, peaches, figs, green fodder and vegetables cultivated. The splendid cotton of Tacna province is eagerly purchased by South Chile’s mills, but the export is small as yet, amounting only to a few hundred tons annually; there is every inducement to immense extension of the cultivation of this fibre, and when present plans to canalise the waters of the Caplina River and of Lake Chuncara are completed, the little province will multiply its 230,000 hectares now under cultivation.
Tarapacá Province is curiously situated as regards cultivation; to the north a few rivers reach the sea, as in Arica, but from Pisagua southwards the great nitrate beds lie like an immense dry lake parallel with the coast, and a dozen little rivers flowing down from Andean foothills disappear in the desert sands long before they reach the eastern edge of the nitrate pampas. But each one of these rivers is a green ribbon of fertility, and Tarapacá ships its luscious oranges to the nitrate camps, and by train all the way to Pueblo Hundido in Atacama.
Antofagasta’s one considerable river is the Loa, subject to strong floods, but irrigating small fields all the way. There are but 121 farmers in the whole province of 46,000 square miles, cultivating less than 3000 hectares. Sites of old pre-Spanish towns along the Loa’s banks are proof of centuries of utilisation of its waters.
Copiapó possesses two charming oases in the desert. The first and most important is the ancient town of Copiapó, long famous for its copper mines, but depressed by the drop in metal prices after the close of the European war. The second is Vallenar, whose bright setting of little fields, peach trees and vines, is a joy to the eyes after a journey through the copper country. Neither region produces enough foodstuffs for its own maintenance, and there is no agricultural surplus to sell. The whole province of over 30,000 square miles has less than 20,000 hectares under irrigation.
Coquimbo Province is generally regarded as the northern limit to general farming; it is a small province, including only 13,500 square miles, shouldered by the Andes that here push down within eighty kilometres of the Pacific Ocean, but it is prosperous and enterprising. The population is about 250,000, of whom 4500 are farmers; of the remainder the great bulk are interested in mining small veins of copper, an industry which has been handed down for generations as a kind of technical inheritance in northern Chile. I know a Coquimbo farm, excellently managed, situated a few miles outside Coquimbo Port and its older sister, La Serena, which is a revelation of what can be done under the difficulties attendant upon almost constant drought—for the rainfall does not usually attain two inches in the year—and a temperature which remains steadily at about 60° Fahrenheit. The livestock were, in the period of greatest heat, driven eastwards to the hills, many landowners upon the coast following the system of buying supplementary land in the cordilleras in the hope of finding at every season a few patches of pasture. John McAuliffe is one of those Britons who identify their fortunes with those of Chile, and forty years’ residence, with experience of shipbuilding, mining and farming, has made the genial owner of San Martin a resourceful producer and distributor.
Coquimbo Province possesses 1,500,000 hectares of land devoted to agriculture, of which 20,000 are irrigated and about 25,000 are “artificial” pastures. Vineyards on a commercial scale, orchards of figs and other sub-tropical fruits, as well as fields of wheat, maize and barley, produce a surplus exported from Coquimbo.