The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-11-23
4 RAINLESS REGION,
A Section of Peru That is With
out a Parallel.
SOME REMAINS OF THE INCAs.
An Ancient System of Irrigation Than Which
q Better Has Never Yet
Been Developed.

Been Developed.
PALPA, Peru, August 81, 1S90.-[Special
Correspondence of THE HERALD. Our
main object in tarrying at this out-of- the
way Acadia was to make it the starting
point of several excursions; for the little
oasis, surrounded on all sides by desert
sands, is in the midst of most interesting
region. First we paid a visit to San
Xavier, one OF the finest estates on the
ocean side of Peru, which lies about twelve
miles from Palpa, beyond range of low
and sandy hills
In former times San Xavier
BELONGED TO THE JEsUITs.
as did also the plantations of Yea and Can
ate and all their property was worked by
negro slaves. In those days this one vine
yard produced never less than 20, 600 arrobas
of liquor per. annum, which sold for from
five to seven dollars the arroba, the present
price being only two dollars. 1t was I'M
der the highest possible state of cultivation
and enormously valuable when seized by
the colonial authorities in 1867, by order of
death blowits productiveness has steadily
decreased and few years ago it was pur
chased from the government by Senior Don
Domingo Elias, a gentleman famous in
Peru for owning pretty much all this part
OF the country
The San Xavier manor house is large and
well furnished, with apartments as long
and lofty as so many public halls, sur
rounded by stone corridor whose massive
columns support
SERIES OF ROUND ARCHES.
On one side are extensive winepresses
and storerooms and on the other a hand
( some old church which was built by the
! Jesuits about the middle of the last cen
fury. There is some remarkably fine wood
carving on the pulpit and affairs of this now
seldom seen sanctuary, while score of
old portraits of fathers of the order in
splendid gilt frames add an air of grandeur
| to the place.
Thirty miles south of this estate over
rocky hills and arid sands, lies the valley OF
Nasca, which descends from the sierras by
an easy slope and gradually widens as it
approaches the sea. This place is interest
ing only on account of its peculiar mode of
irrigation. Though covered with rich ha-
clendas, yielding marvellous crops OF
! grapes, cotton, corn, sugarcane, melons,
potatoes and all kinds of fruits and vegeta-
| bles, nature has provided nothing for its
watering in a region where rain never
/ falls, except tiny river which is dry dur
ing about eleven months of the year. But
! for the industry and engineering skill oil
the aboriginal Indians, the lovely valley
would have been no better than
TIE SURROUNDING DESERTS.
Long before the arrival of the destroying
| Spaniards they had commended with the
arid obstacles and executed a work here
which is almost unequaled in the history OF
| irrigation. Cutting deep trenches along
the whole length of the valley, they ex-
tended them so high up into the mountains
that to this day the inhabitants do not
know how far they were carried. The
main trenches, known as pltQuiOS in the
language of the Incas, are at the upper enc
of the valley and each is about four feet
deep, the sides and roof lined with cementeC
stones. These descending branch Off into
smaller puquios which ramify all over the
valley in every direction, plentifully sup
plying every farm with pure, cool noun
tain water and feeding the little bitches
that irrigate and fertilize the soil. The
! main trenches are several feet below the
| surface and at intervals of about two
hundred yards there are oios or small
holes by which workmen May go down into
the vault and clear away any obstruction
! Diverging in every direction the puo,tio
often cross one another and by the time
they have reached the southern limit O.
cultivation
EVERY DROP OF WATER HAS BEEN Elk
| HAUSTED.
In the valley of Nasca no fewer than fif-
teen extensive vineyards and cotton plan
tations are thus watered by artificial
means and at Ala small mill for cleansins
the cotton is also turned from the ditche.
OF the Incas.
Going little nearer to the sea, one
comes to the most profitable cotton estate.
in Peru, named respectively ''Lacra" ant
"San JOSE" Both contain mills pro
PEELED by water, with machinery for sepa-
rating the seed, and presses for packins
the cotton. The product is all sent tx
Lomas, little port that has been opened
expressly for it across thirty or more miles
of desert. 1t goes on mule back, eaci
animal carrying two bales, weighing 17i
pounds apiece. The cotton is then piled OF
large raft, which is launched in the heavy
surf and so brought alongside the waitinJ
vessel Not less than 10000 quintals of i
are annually shipped here from San Jos
and Lacra alone. A few miles from thu
little port, the mysterious Cerro de La