The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-11-22

BY FRANK G. CARPENTER

farming regions on the globe. It is known as the Great Central valley and it's vast tracts of irrigated land will grow everything produced in southern California. South of this valley and extending from Conception to the Strait of Magellan, is long narrow strip which is covered with woods.
 The climate and rainfall of Chile are varied. In the northern part of the country 1t never rains. In the central valley the water drops only at long in- tervals. but down here in the south they have a rainfall of 100 inches and up- wards per year. Valdivia has ioS inches, and further south there Is more In some places the rain is said to fall 1s months every year. This is not true. Still there are seasons when the water pours down., and other months when the sky is clear, and there is no rain at all. The latter condition has prevailed during my stay.
 Northern Chile is treeless. Central Chile has groves of eucalyptus and South Caro- lna poplars and its irrigating ditches and streams are lined with magnificent trees. All of the trees of that region have been planted. The central valley has naturally no trees, although the land is so fertile that if you set out an oak 1t would grow within To years to the nelSnt or the NlrSln OakS Ol our IoTeStS. A eucalyptus will reach to a height of 75 feet in a decade.
 Southern Chile Is Just the reverse of the north. It Is land of forests, and almost as we'll timbered as was the east ern part of tho United States when our first settlers came. It has so much wood that Chile, notwithstanding the arid lands of the north. Is said to have in propor- ton to its area more forests than any nf warld through green fields with stumps scat tered through them.s all the way from Conception to Temuco. Further south men were cutting farms out of the woods and here and there the wheat was grow ing among the burned timber some of which was still standing. Here was a forest where the trees had been stripped to their bark close to the ground, and there was one made of the skeletons of trees killed in that way. In the latter instance the bark had dropped off and fke trunks and branches were as white as so many bones.
 At nearly every railroad station ars lumber yards containing piles of fencs posts, ties and building materials stacked up awaiting shipment to the north The lumber is not good in com parison with ours. It is full of knots and cracks. The boards are narrow and they are nothing like the fine wood which comes to Chile from California and Oregon and Washington. The most of the trees here are antarctic beech and pine. There are also hard woods The forests are thin and there is much underbrush among the trees. It is im- possible to clear the land as we do, on account of tho trouble in getting rid of the stumps. Some of the farmers are now importing stump pullers from the United States, and not a few are using dynamite. Ringing and burning the trees leaves a great deal of dead timber. and the cultivation cannot be well done un- til the dead trees are out by the roots.
 After the land is cleared it looks noth- ing like similar land in the United States. The fences are of barbed wire. but there are no large fields in clean cultivation and fine barns and houses as in the Uni ted States The most of the buildings are log cabins of one story, roofed with straw or slabs. They are put up In rude way, and but few of them have gardens or flowers. There are some good homes owned by the Germans, but the native Chilenos live but little better than say ages They seem to be camping out rather than settling down to build up 8 country. 70 r
 The most of the new iand is devoted to wheat. This is the chief cereal of Chile, the country producing something like 9,000,000 bushels per year. Some cattle are raised, but here in the south the animals are ragged and lean. and their meat is chiefly used fer making charque. or dried beef In the central valley the animals are much better, and