The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-10-02

sine ENrm-AmOnE the Acohs VI
Farm Hands of Chile - They
work for Twenty Cents IA Day
Every Week--HOw They Live.
Copyright. 1898, by Frank G. Carpenter.
SAN ROSENDO, Chile, Sept. 1.-The
Chilean farmers are perhaps the rich
est Of their kind in the world. They
live like feudaI lords upon their great
estates, and number their retainers by
the hundred. They have fiocks of thou
sands Of sheep, vast droves of cattle
and horses, and their cowboys are
massed like an army at the annual
round-ups They raise every year over
2S. coo 600 bushels of wheat, millions Of
gallons OF wine and the finest horses
and best cattle on the western coast
of this continent. Some of them have
the most modern machinery, and men
who own a dozen American threShlng
machines are not uncommon.
1000 ACRES ONLY A GARDEN.
Fully one-half Of the population Of
Chile Is devoted to agriculture, but
only these nabobs are the landowners.
In the whole United States, with it's
Is. 600 600 inhabitants, only $1,000 men
own farms of 1000 acres and over. Here
a 1.O00-acre farm is little more than
garden patch. | meet daily men who
have 10000. 10000 and $4,000 acres of
land, and l have visited a number Of
estates worth more than $1,000,000. l
have a geography of Chile, just pub
lished which gives the government
valuations of the farms of each prov
ince. There are hundreds in nearly
every state worth over 100000, and in
the country there are scores valued at
more than $1,000, 600. l am now at the
little railroad and farming town Of San
RosendO, in the central valley Of Chile.
San ROSendo is about 500 miles south
of Santiago, and about 200 miles south
Of the Peruvian frontier.
In coming here l rode through one
of the chief agricultural sections of the
country. This valley is from 20 to 100
miles wide and about 500 miles long.
1t extends from above Santiago to hun
dreds of miles south of this point. On
the east of it are the snowy walls Of
the Andes, with here and there the
great cone Of a dead volcano rising
above the other peaks, and on the west
are the lower mountains and hills Of
the coast range, their sides covered
with green. Between these almost par
allel but winding walls Ties the rich
valley of Chile. It's surface is rolling
and 1t Is cut by many creeks and little
rivers, which, fed by the Andean SHOWS,
carry with them to the sea loads Of
silt, so rich that it makes fat every
inch Of soil upon which it drops.
In some streams, such as the Mapo,
the amount of silt Is so great that it
is said to coat the lands by the irriga-
ton canals to a depth of an inch
year. Other streams, such as the Bio
bio and some streams Of South Chile,
are almost as clear as crystal. The
whole of the valley north of this point
is irrigated and the country Is like q
vast garden made up of fields divided
by canals along which hedges of Lom-
hardy pOplars have grown to the height
OF sixty feet and more.
Some Of the estates are walled with
stone and it is only occasionally that
you see fences Of wire or boards. There
are no barns standing out on the land
scape, and the only buildings are the
great low rambling structures of the
owner of the estate and the mean
squalid houses Of the Iaborers, which
shall describe more fully further on.
Oxen everywhere take the place Of
horses or mules. Clumsy carts drawn
by these beasts with Jokes tied to their
horns are the farm wagons, and the
plows are forced through the furrow by
the same motive power. The estates
were, as a rule we'll kept. I passed
vast vineyards, the vines of which now
covered with the red leaves Of winter,
spotted the landscape with fields Of
blood. The vines were dwarfed as they
are in France, and in many cases were
trained upon wires. Every vineyard
has, I am told it's skilled FTenchma,n
as superintendent. The vines are plant
cd in rows about five feet apart, and
cd 70 MIR Nhn
Chilean wines, both white and red, are
excellent, and the amount exported
every year is increasing. The climate
of Chile is just about the same as that
of California. The same crops and
fruits are raised in both places, and the
conditions Of successful farming are
about the same, save that in California
you find most Of the farms very small.
HOW ONE WOMAN FARMS.
What would one Of the Californian
women who tells you that forty acres
are more than enough for one person
to take care of think if she were asked
to manage farm worth a million dol
lars and comprising more than 1000
acres? There is a woman who owns
an estate Of this size near Santiago.
She directs 1t herself and this, notwith-
standing she is now considerably over
own books, the balances of each page
of which run into the thousands of
dollars, and at the same time man
ages all the details connected with her
household and it's numerous guests.
This woman is to me one of the re-
markable characters Of Chile. Her
name Is Sonora Emilia Herrera de
TOro. She belongs to one Of the oldest
families of Chile, and the estate has
been in her family for hundreds of
years. 1t lies within two hours by train
Of Santiago, and, as is the case with
most of the wealthy farmers of this
country, the family live upon 1t only
during the summer months, spending
their winters in their home at the
capital 1t was in company with our
American minister and his wife that I
visited Madame de Toro and had one
of the most pleasant and interesting
experiences I have had during my stay
In Chile.
Leaving Santiago on the train, we
rode under the snow walls of the An
des through hacienda after hacienda,
by vast vineyards of blood-red vines,
by walled fields filed with herds Of
cattle and sheep until we came to the
station Of the "Aguila" estate. Here
we were met by a spanking team of
bays and driven for mile or so on
the estate before we came to the home.
This consisted of many long, low one
story buildings, with roofs Of red tiles
and wide porches floored with brick,
running about patiOs and gardens. A
grove of trees at least 100 feet high
looked down upon 1t, and the long
leaves Of q great palm 100 years old
rustled welcome as we stepped upon
the porch. There were, Judge, at
least 100 large rooms In the house, and
all