The handsome conifer called alerce (Fitzroya Patagonica Hook) grows in extensive woods or “alerzales” in the Llanquihue region, its base deep in ferns, the thickly-berried berberis (Empetrum rubrum) and other fruit-bearing shrubs, as the Myrtus nummularia. From these berries the native Indians made their fermented drink “chicha” in the time before Spanish soldiers and missionaries brought European fruit trees to South Chile; today apples are chiefly used for the same purpose.
The alerce frequently grows to a great size. Dr. M. R. Espinosa, visiting the regions of its greatest occurrence in 1917, measured conifers of this variety which reached 115 feet in height, with a trunk diameter, at three feet from the ground, of four and a half feet. Another big specimen measured twenty-seven feet in circumference, and he speaks of yet another giant, whose old trunk was still to be seen between Puerto Varas and Puerto Montt, with a girth at the base of over forty-two feet. The alerce grows perfectly erect, providing splendid planks of such uniform quality that up to comparatively recent times these “tablas” were the recognised standard of barter in the Llanquihue and Chiloé regions, and were exchanged like cash for imported manufactures and foodstuffs. The wood is red in hue, resists exposure to water and air, and is easily worked, light and resilient.
The coihue, another fine timber tree of the south, growing in “colonies,” runs the alerce a good second in height, the two bearing the reputation of being the tallest trees found in Chile; the laurel, the lumo, and the canelo are not equally social in habit, but grow in mixed woodland and are therefore not commercially available to a like extent. The latter tree, the “Chilean cinnamon,” has a scented bark and is sacred to the Araucanians, whose main festivals and ceremonies were traditionally held under the shade of the canelo’s branches.
Forty per cent of the whole territory of Magellanes is estimated as forest: Llanquihue, Valdivia and Cautín possess a smaller proportion, for much magnificent woodland has already yielded to the axe of the settler, but there is still in all about 20,000,000 acres of timbered land south of the Bio-Bio River. Beyond Araucania the thick forest of the south gives place to light woods, with no large trees and none that are tall except the imported poplar, commonly known as the “alamo.” All about Concepción the thickly leaved little boldo is seen, yielding only small timber but much prized for the medicinal value of its leaves, from which “boldaina” is extracted; the thickets are full of the slim avellano, producing a nut closely resembling the hazel.
The wooded areas of the central region, especially in the well-watered parts of Aconcagua, O’Higgins, Valparaiso and Colchagua, are well supplied with lingue, maitén, litre and quillay. The bark of the latter is highly saponaceous and is sold in every Chilean market, but few of these trees yield planks large enough for construction purposes, and are chiefly useful as fuel.
The northerly, more arid country above Illapel frequently shows nothing but a thorny scrub of the mimosa family; one of these, the algarroba, is prized as a shade tree and for the green pods it produces, an excellent cattle food. When brown and dry, these pods yield a tannin used in curing skins, almost identical with the divi-divi of Venezuela. Beyond Coquimbo even the thorny scrub and cactus disappear, and in the Andean heights of Tacna the only fuel that offers is that strange growth, like a mammoth fungus, the llareta, that must be dried for over a year before it will burn.
It is thus plain that North and Central Chile, where is the bulk of the population of the country, cannot supply their own needs for lumber; it is from the great southerly habitat of the alerce, the coihue and the Chilean pine that vast quantities of wood for industrial and domestic use must be sought. Sawmills begin to dot the side of the railroad soon after the Bio-Bio is crossed on a southerly journey, and immense piles of fine planks and logs stand beside the line all the way to Puerto Montt. Immense tracts of forest are still untouched for lack of adequate transport, although the conformation of Chile, and the large number of southerly rivers and lakes, help to render the problem soluble. Even without any great organisation, the south supplies lumber to the central and northern provinces while filling its own requirements and exporting a varying quantity. It is difficult to estimate the amount of Chilean timber exported, since statistics of the number of pieces, or even of “bundles” of planks, are alone available; the value, in 1919, of unworked timber exported from the country is officially given as 1,496,000 pesos of eighteen pence.
Forestal laws in Chile have been slow in application chiefly because for centuries a great deal more woodland existed than could be utilised; land was needed for cultivation, and it was no crime to burn large tracts in order that farms should be created. I have heard it maintained in Chile that such forest destruction or at least the clearing of wide strips through the heart of certain southerly areas has been beneficial to the climate: that the Valdivia and Llanquihue region have been less lavishly endowed with rain and rendered more agreeable for settlers in consequence.
A few enterprising land owners have begun to replant woodland, growing plantations of spruce and eucalyptus for preference; for Chile is a hospitable host to all plants and trees brought from temperate zones.
A great deal has been said concerning the suitability of the South Chilean forests for making paper pulp, but up to the middle of 1921 no manufacture has been commenced. Expert opinion has proposed new plantations of eucalyptus, etc., owing to the non-social character of Chilean timberlands. Were the Chilean conifers more closely grouped the problem might have been solved long ago. Suggestions for utilising extensive thickets of bamboo, the colihue, have also been without result up to the present, but the recent careful investigations of a Swedish firm will, it is hoped, bear fruit. The south has plenty of water-power and easy access to sea or rail, two important points to be considered in connection with manufacturing industries.