South of this province Central Chile begins. Aconcagua, Valparaiso, Santiago, O’Higgins, Colchagua and Curicó are among the most delightful regions in the world, with a perfect climate, fertile land, access to markets, and employés who are not yet impressed with the views of the I. W. W. which have troubled the waters of Chilean industry so effectively during recent years. It has been the writer’s good fortune to see something of the life upon several estates devoted to general farming and livestock, upon fruit and alfalfa farms, and upon one of the finest vine-growing and wine-making properties in Central Chile. I cannot imagine a more agreeable life than that upon these estates.
In the first example, the lands are situated upon the Aconcagua River, extending from this barrier in a half circle enclosed by a horse-shoe of wooded hills. The river is a typical Chilean watercourse, widespread, turbulent, spreading into five or six branches on a wide and stony bed. When the snows melt and the stream comes down with great force, it is almost impassable, although the sturdy Chilean horse, extremely intelligent and well trained, will always struggle across safely so long as the reins are left loose. The farm includes about 250 acres of irrigated land and about 2000 acres of hillside. The jealously-watched water rights are regulated by a set of special laws, and as there is just about enough water for the service of the farms along the Aconcagua’s banks, with none to spare, water-stealing is a black crime. Quebrada Redonda is a mixed farm, upon which a couple of hundred sheep, as well as cattle and horses, are fed: the fields are brilliant with lucerne, wheat, beans, barley and Indian corn. In the kitchen garden are peaches, walnuts, artichokes, oranges, pears, plums, celery—in fact, all fruit and vegetables that grow in temperate or sub-tropical zones. The lawn edges are gay with roses and iris, chrysanthemums and lupins. All the flat lands are fertile: no fertilisers are needed, but leguminous crops are grown in rotation with cereals. The milk of the Chilean cows is first-class in quality and produces cheese—made daily by the simplest process—that finds a ready sale in local markets.
The hill lands, invaluable upon a Chilean farm, offer plenty of food for the young cattle in winter. Within a few days after the first heavy rains the brown slopes turn green, and the cattle are driven up to crop the new carpet of young grass. The woodland yields sufficient timber to supply the domestic needs of the patrón and the inquilinos (farm hands working upon a special system), but there is no growth of big trees. The graceful, evergreen quillay is the base of quite a considerable industry, for the bark is highly saponaceous, and, stripped and dried, is sold in all the public markets in Chile. The maitén, another thick little tree, is also cut for firewood; the litre offers useful lumber when of sufficient size. Down by the water stand rows of familiar willows, their branches draped with the scarlet flowers of the parasite quintral; and on the slopes are scores of bunches of blue-green dagger-shaped leaves enclosing a stalk crowned with a violet flower-head. This is the chagual, whose young stem is eaten in springtime, a lovely period when pink wild lilies clothe the rocky slopes and a myriad flowering trees and shrubs scent the clear air. Many of the aromatic leaves and barks for which Chile is famous are used to make medicinal decoctions, beloved of the working classes.
Adjoining this property is another fine farm, also operated by an energetic country-loving Briton; here lemons and other citrus fruits are grown in well-kept orchards and the fields are given over to alfalfa and hemp, grown in rotation with root crops. Chile has no warmer advocates of her attractions than the owners of Quebrada Redonda and its neighbour, but both farmers lay stress upon the need for personal attention to every detail and constant residence upon the property, even with the best mayor-domo performing the duties of a farm bailiff or estate steward. It is also emphasised that Chilean lands are not for the worker without capital. In this coveted region, in fact, costs run high, as the following data, owed to Mr. Geoffrey Bushell, demonstrate.
The average cost of good irrigated land, near the railway, in the Central Valley (from Aconcagua to the Maule) is about 4000 paper pesos per cuadra of some four acres: or say £50 per acre with exchange at twelve pence to the peso. To this should be added £50 per cuadra for the purchase of horses, cattle and implements, and another £50 per cuadra should also be allowed for fencing, drains, repairing or putting up buildings, expenses frequently renewed even when a farm is in good running order. Land in less accessible regions is less costly, but transport in Chile depends upon railroads, since the highways are out of action in the rainy season, and it is worth while to avoid trouble by a greater initial outlay. No farm is cheap if its products cannot be sent to market.
When the estate is in good running condition, returns come quickly and markets are excellent; a profit of 12 to 15 per cent upon invested capital is usually expected, but may rise to 20 per cent. Alfalfa can be cut at least three times a year, and always finds a ready sale: potatoes, wheat and barley, beans, hemp, aji (red pepper), all do well and are good selling crops. Potatoes, for example, yield 300 bags (of 100 kilos each) to the cuadra, and bring fifteen to twenty pesos per bag in the Valparaiso markets.
Animals can be kept out of doors all the year round, and the stock-fattening and dairy businesses are both good. Fruit cultivation, apart from such good carriers as lemons or oranges, is not recommended, since quick access to markets is lacking and selling organisations do not exist.
In order to buy, stock, equip and operate a farm and to wait a year for returns without inconvenience, a farmer taking up land in Central Chile should have £15,000 ($75,000 U. S. currency). He needs at least fifty cuadras, or 200 acres, of irrigated land, as well as some wild bush, preferably hill country. Workers are never abundant in South America, but the inquilino system retained in Chile tends to keep generation after generation upon the soil, and no good farmer lacks help in spite of the higher wages offered by the mining industry. Attacks have been levelled against the inquilino system, yet it works well in practice when estate owners are just and a personal interest taken in the worker’s welfare. The men live upon the estate with their families, are given a cottage rent free, a strip of land of generally one or two acres, and sometimes the use of ploughs and other farm implements; a horse and a few domestic animals are usually owned. One pound of bread and one pound of beans are given daily, cooked if so preferred, and one peso per day in cash. On the farms visited by the writer the houses of the farm hands were sound and clean, and the families appeared cheerful and content; I heard warm praises of the Chilean worker from employers.
The life of a farmer in Chile, it was generally agreed, is pleasant; constant attention is required, but rewards are sufficient and the delightful climate compensates for many difficulties. The open-air life, constant horseback riding, and the sense of freedom in a country not too densely populated, attract many Europeans, lamenting nothing more than the absence of certain forms of sport. There is fair fishing, for instance, in the fast streams from the Cordillera, but there are no sporting fish; no hunting, but good shooting in wooded or open country. The partridge and tortolita fly well and fast, and give almost as good sport as grouse; snipe and quail are also to be found in the central regions.