Progressive Chile

by Robert E. Mansfield

LAND OWNER NO. 3.

The transition of Land Owners No. 3, from what is recognized as the inferior classes, to respectable citizens is generally due to the accumulation of property. Wealth constitutes recognized citizenship, and when obtained, they think that the right of sovereignty is theirs in the fullest degree. This transition often carries with it the idea that all law and government should be administered by them. Fortunately their inexperience and lack of education seldom permits them to rule higher than municipal legislation, or perhaps sub-delegate of a district. The phlegmatic temperament of this class of Chilenos is universal. If emotions ever stir the depths of their souls they manage to conceal the fact by an apparent calm composure.

Most of them are illiterate, but to their credit they have in recent years been endeavoring to secure for their children better education than that afforded them. The educational facilities of the country are not good, but the majority of the children of this class of farmers secure sufficient technical training in the schools to suffice for their simple lives. They are orderly, hard working people, and generally honest, as they interpret the meaning of the term. The Chilean characteristic of sticking tenaciously to custom and tradition is exemplified in the home life of these people. Their condition is little better or above that of Land Owners No. 1 and 2. From choice, rather than necessity, they follow the custom of their Indian ancestors by sitting upon the ground, a stone or a billet of wood; the food for the family is served from one dish, there being as many spoons as persons to be served. The materials which enter into the composition of the food of these farmer folk consisting of wheat, corn, beans, fruit, pepper, etc., are ground between stones. In fact the grinding stones are the most useful utensils in the equipment of the kitchen. They consist of one large flat stone with a smooth surface, and a smaller one, oval shaped. The material is placed upon the large stone, and the other in the hand of the operator is used to crush and grind the grain or dried vegetables to the proper consistency. This work is always done by the women. In the kitchen may be found a few pots, clay dishes, tin cups, wooden spoons and quantities of dirt. Occupying the kitchen, and apparently upon the most intimate terms with members of the family are pigs, goats, dogs, and chickens. If there are guests in the house, food is served in the dining room with some show of formality, but when the family is alone, the food is served in one dish from which the members help themselves with spoons until the supply is exhausted. It is then refilled with some other kind of food and the meal continues until all are satisfied. With a change of food the same dish and spoons are used without being washed. Tea and coffee are sometimes served when strangers are present, but when the family is alone, mate only is served as a drink, with their meals. The mate cup is filled and passed to the head of the house who drinks the contents through a “bombilla.” The cup is filled again and again, each member of the family drinking out of the same vessel and through the same bombilla. When there are no guests in the house the servants sometimes form part of the family group, eating out of the same pot, and having their turn at the mate through the family bombilla.

The tile-roofed adobe houses inhabited by this class of farmers are very plain. They are devoid of ornamentation within or without, and there is seldom a tree or shrub to relieve the dreary monotony of the surroundings. There are no windows in these places of abode, and the floor is either dirt or common brick. The furniture consists of beds, one or two home-made tables, and a few chairs of the commonest kind.

If a person of the better class visits the home of one of these Chilean farmers, he must do most of the talking, and it will be necessary to limit the conversation to subjects pertaining to the church, crops, animals, gossip, or questions relating to their districts. They know little of the great world lying beyond the narrow horizon of their local environments. The methods employed by this class of farmers in cultivating the soil are crude and primitive. The wooden plow used by the Spaniards and Greeks a thousand years ago, furnishes the model for the implement used by these people in this twentieth century. It is made by mortising one piece of a small tree trunk into another, at an angle of about forty-five degrees. A piece of iron is usually fastened over the point of the portion that is intended to stir the ground. Oxen, attached by a wooden yoke fastened to their horns with rawhide thongs, are employed in drawing the plows. A stick serves as a handle, and holding on to the crude implement with one hand, the other used in directing the oxen, the plowman manages to scratch the ground, but is never able to stir the soil to any depth. When the plowing is done and the grain planted or sown, some branches of trees serve as a drag for covering it. Forks for handling grain and hay are made from branches of trees.

The grain is harvested with reap hooks, and the threshing is done with animals. The wheat or barley is placed upon the ground within a circular enclosure. A number of animals, usually young mares from the farm, are turned into the enclosure, and one or more men mounted upon strong horses, follow them around, shouting, whipping and pursuing them over the grain until the tramping of hoofs has crushed the grain from the straw. Then comes the process of separating the chaff from the grain. This, as are all other methods employed in cultivating and preparing products of the farm for market, is curious and primitive. The wheat and chaff are placed in baskets, which men hold in their hands above their heads allowing the contents to empty slowly. As it falls the chaff and refuse are carried to one side by the wind, leaving the grain, which is heavier and which falls directly to the ground, clean and ready for the market.

Nearly all the land occupied and cultivated by this class of farmers is what is known as “campo de rulo” (dry hill land), which constitutes the greater part of agricultural Chile. The only moisture it has is from the three or four months’ rainfall from June to October. For about half the year these hill lands are brown, sear and desolate looking, but in the autumn, winter and spring, they are covered with a mantle of rich verdure, presenting a landscape scene that is attractive and prepossessing. During the rainy season the mud is deep, roads are often impassable, bridges are carried away by the swift current of the streams and there is little communication between different communities or between country and city.

The theory of these hill farmers is to get as much out of the soil as possible, without expense. The land is never fertilized, and crops are grown alternate years. The plowing is done after the rains set in in the autumn, and the soil being clay, remains very hard and lumpy. This plowed land, called “barbecho,” is left over the winter, the rains having the effect of pulverizing and putting it in condition for the sowing or planting for the next season. Oxen are used for plowing, and it is a novel sight to see a large number of those slow, plodding beasts winding about the hills dragging the crude plows. Fifty yoke of oxen are often engaged in plowing on one hacienda. This method of cultivating is employed until the soil becomes so worn that it will not produce a satisfactory crop. It is then let stand for several years until nature rejuvenates it, and it is again put into service. The grain is harvested by hand, and brought from the hills in primitive wooden carts, or upon the heads of peons. The general appearance of the soil would indicate that this hill land is valueless for agricultural purposes, but it produces annually a large per cent. of the agricultural products of the country, besides maintaining many horses, cattle and sheep.

The farmers of this class live in a narrow world. The majority of them have never been out of the province in which they were born and many of them never saw a railway train; they know the villages in their vicinity, and perhaps the provincial capital, but one who has seen Santiago, the national capital, is the rare exception. The customs prevailing in other countries, or what is going on in the great world, are of little consequence to them; they are interested only in what they are doing. Even if one can read, he seldom subscribes for a newspaper, as that is considered a useless expenditure.

The men engage only in the larger affairs of the business of the family, such as marketing the animals and the grain raised on the farm. The small trade in chicha, liquors, poultry, etc., is attended to by the women. In nearly every house is kept a supply of such articles as may be required by the peons. In the sale of these, the money that is paid out by the farmer, in wages, comes back in small amounts, and with interest. The profit made on this small mercantile business, in the sale of sugar, mate, chicha, etc., pays for the articles of the same class consumed by the farmer’s family. In these transactions they never refuse credit to anyone, but politely say they have not the article called for, notwithstanding the fact that it may be in plain view of the would-be purchaser, or sold to another before his eyes. They understand each other and their method of dealing with delinquent customers furnishes an example that might be emulated with profit by more progressive and up-to-date tradesmen.