Between Valdivia and Puerto Montt lies a great potato-raising country; the land flattens out from Osorno to the edge of Llanquihue Lake, and here hundreds of well-managed farms flourish; a large proportion of the settlers possess German names, and their forebears brought with them, seventy years ago, the craft of the farmer. Today the population is Chilean. Farther south, upon the island of Chiloé, another group of foreign origin operates farms beside the native Chilotes: after the South African War ending in 1903 a number of Boers came here and, in spite of the marked difference between climate and conditions of the Transvaal and South Chile, remained and prosper.
Chile feeds about 5,000,000 sheep, of which number 2,000,000 have been raised in the far south, in the Territory of Magellanes; 2,250,000 head of cattle are distributed throughout the country—Tarapacá and Antofagasta owning about 600 head between them, while Tacna has 2500—but by far the largest number, 2,000,000, are grouped in the provinces below Valparaiso. The country supports also about 400,000 horses, 55,000 mules, and 300,000 pigs. The wool clip of Chile averages 170,000 metric quintals, four-fifths of the total coming from the Territory of Magellanes.
Among the small farming industries of Chile are beekeeping and flax-production; a little olive oil is made in the more northerly provinces, and the dried raisins, peaches and apricots of Huasco have earned much more than local fame.
The rise of sheep-farming and allied industries in Magellanes Territory is one of the great surprises of the century. Punta Arenas itself, founded on paper by President Bulnes in 1843, and tentatively settled in 1851, was for a long time nothing but a penal settlement: but a rising of the convicts drew attention to the region, the discovery of gold reefs and coal beds, as well as petroliferous shales, brought a number of enterprising people, and by 1897 the first flock of sheep, brought by the governor Dublé Almeida twenty years previously, had multiplied so fast that the territory counted 800,000 as the total flock. It was difficult to find a use for the sheep, and by way of solving this problem the first packing-house was established in 1905 at Rio Seco, about ten miles from Punta Arenas.
Four frigorificos are now in operation, at San Gregorio Bay, at Puerto Bories (Ultima Esperanza) and at Tres Puentes, in addition to the first established. During the war the packing-houses exported meat products (frozen and conserved meat, fats, etc.) worth £1,000,000 sterling annually, and large fortunes were also made by the sheep-raising farms when the price of wool soared from sixpence per pound to twenty-two pence. The largest of the companies running sheep on a big scale is the Sociedad Explotadora de la Tierra del Fuego, which started operations in 1893, has a capital of £1,800,000, raised in London, and owns over a million sheep.
A fifth packing-house built at the close of the war and already in operation is situated in Puerto Montt, is British-financed and equipped, and aims at helping the situation of this part of the south, possessing a surplus for northern markets but lacking sufficient transportation for live animals.
Irrigation Canals
Irrigation canals have been in use in Chile for hundreds of years, those constructed by private estate owners watering a total of over 3,000,000 acres. Several of these are ambitious constructions, those diverted from such well-supplied rivers as the Maipo and Aconcagua extending in certain instances for over one hundred miles.
The great O’Higgins built a canal ensuring Santiago’s water supply 150 years ago: a continuance of this wise policy of Government direction in a matter of national importance has been advised by many thinkers in Chile, but it was not until the closure of nitrate enterprises in 1914 forced the Government to find employment for surplus workers that irrigation laws were added to the Chilean code and bonds issued to finance the construction of four important canals. In early 1915 the creation of a new section in the Public Works Department inaugurated a period of great activity in the work suggested, and by the beginning of 1921 the Manco Canal drawing water from the Aconcagua was already completed, its forty-five miles of main length bringing water to nearly 8000 acres of land. The cost of construction was 2,000,000 pesos paper.
At the same time work was begun on the Maule Canal, drawing water from the Maule River; it is 115 miles long, irrigates 113,000 acres, and was built at a cost of 8,500,000 pesos; its completion represents an engineering feat upon which Chilean engineers are to be congratulated. A fall created by one of the branches of this canal offers 20,000 h.p. to users of hydraulic force in Chile.