The old and the new Peru

by Marie Robinson Wright

The increasing importance of Peru’s seaport trade is largely due to the prosperous development of agriculture, which is annually becoming a more valuable source of revenue to the country. Nearly all the steamers that visit Callao call also at other Peruvian ports, the coast being dotted from Tumbes to Arica with flourishing harbors, in which may be seen trading vessels of all nations. From the valleys of the coast region are shipped immense quantities of sugar and important cargoes of the famous Peruvian cotton, grown exclusively in this country, besides tobacco, rice, coffee, and a variety of fruits. Agriculture is the chief occupation of the people in this part of Peru, and the employment of modern methods in its development is leading to wonderful results.

The conditions that govern agriculture on the Peruvian coast are similar to those of the Nile valley, as regards the nature of the soil, climate, and fertilization. Wherever a stream crosses the sandy strip between the Cordilleras and the sea, the valley along its course is made richly productive, and yields abundant harvests. Every effort is being put forth by the government to increase the irrigable territory by distributing the water of the rivers to the best advantage and by sinking artesian wells wherever practicable. The special code which governs irrigation on the coast has recently been reformed so as to admit of a more general utilization of the water supply from the rivers; and experienced hydraulic engineers from the Geological Survey Department of Washington, District of Columbia, have been engaged to study the geology of the coast, the courses of its streams, its subterranean waters, etc., in order that, from correct knowledge, the best means may be employed to utilize its moisture so as to benefit the greatest possible area.

IRRIGATING CANAL ON A PIURA PLANTATION.

At present, not more than two million acres of coast lands are planted, out of a cultivable territory of fifty million acres, showing that the farming industry is still in the infancy of its development. But the harvests actually secured, with comparatively little effort and expense, are in some cases phenomenal, and always abundant. When once the entire area is brought under the plough, Peru will have in its coast farms greater wealth than its mines have ever yielded. Not only through want of irrigation is the productive area much less than it would otherwise be, but the lack of laborers to cultivate the land is a serious drawback. Some of the large haciendas contain extensive fields of fertile soil that remain untilled because the owners have not sufficient capital, or a large enough staff of workmen to undertake their development.

LOADING SUGAR-CANE, SANTA BARBARA PLANTATION, CAÑETE.

But, in compensation for its difficulties, agriculture has many advantages on the coast of Peru. No sudden changes of temperature occur to alarm the planter, there are no destructive storms, and the fear of drought does not exist, because the system of artificial irrigation permits of the fields being watered or left dry at the owner’s discretion. Sugar, the chief product of the coast country, is cultivated all the year round, the cutting of cane taking place without interruption on the great plantations that stretch along its valleys. Tumbes, Piura, Lambayeque, La Libertad, Ancash, Lima, Ica, Arequipa, and Tacna have extensive sugar plantations, though from Ica southward, little is exported. The chief sugar-growing districts of the southern coast region are Cañete, in the Department of Lima, and Chincha, in the Department of Ica. From their seaports, Cerro Azul and Tambo de Mora, large cargoes are shipped to foreign countries, as well as from the port of Pisco, at which all the ocean steamers and sailing vessels of the west coast call to receive and discharge merchandise. The large sugar estates of Cañete and Chincha are conducted according to modern methods, those of the British Sugar Company and the haciendas of San José and Larán being the most important in extent and production. The great centre of the sugar industry in Peru is the Chicama valley, in the Department of La Libertad, where the average production reaches four tons to the acre, a larger return than is secured in any other sugar-growing country. The total quantity of sugar produced annually in Peru amounts to about two hundred thousand tons, of which the greater part is grown on the coast, more than a hundred and fifty thousand tons being exported. It is estimated that the value of the year’s harvest averages between eight and nine million dollars. In nearly all the coast districts, flourishing cotton plantations may be seen, though the valleys of Piura are most celebrated for the successful raising of this product, which occupies the second place among the agricultural exports of Peru, the annual shipments amounting to twenty thousand tons, with a prospect of rapid increase, owing to the added extent of territory annually placed under cultivation. In the valleys of Huacho and Supe, in the Department of Lima, the famous “Sea Island” cotton is grown, and all the coast states produce the “Egyptian” and “Mitafifi” varieties. Peruvian cotton is exported only from Piura and Ica.

PIER AND WAREHOUSES OF THE BRITISH SUGAR COMPANY, LIMITED, AT CERRO AZUL.