Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1914-11-01

IEERYHH This extends from Santiago
kSS TO Valdivia. more than 500
miles south. 1t contains the largest and
best estates in the republic. although
there is an extensive wheat-growing re-
gion below it in which great forests are
row being cut down and the clearings
turned into farms.
The central valley of Chile is one OF
tho garden spots of the globe. 1t will
grow anything If it can only have water
As one of the haciendados said 20 me:
IAN you have to do IS to spit on tho
ground and drop IN a seed and, presto,
there il a tree" There is no part quite
so fertile rs that. but trees do grow here
three times as fast as in North America,
l have seen groves Of eucalyptus that
are 100 feet high and still only ten or
fifteen years old. I have already de-
scribed my visit 10 Santa Ines, the fields
Of which are walled with poplars as
high as a church steeplc. There are
thousands Of trees on that estate as
high as any in the eastern part Of our
country and they have all been planted
in the last twenty-five years. 1t is the
same with all kinds of vegetation. In the
irrigated sections peach trees bear at one
and two years and grains and grasses,
uriant This is so notwithstanding some
of the land has been under cultivation
for many generations. The lands about
Santiago have been titled for 300 years
and today among them are numbered
some of the fine farms OF the world.
Large Ranches Irrigated.
But before l describe the big haclendas
let me tell you a little more about the
81 IVj,A
central valley is a wide strip of low
land ranging in width from fifteen TO
100 miles, and about 700 miles long. 1t
begins above Santiago and winds its way
south through about one-fourth of ChilA
On the east of it are the snowy walls
of the Andes, with here and there the
mighty 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 tops almost a desert,
but their foothills covered with green.
The average width OF the valley, all told,
is about thirty miles. and its area Is
somewhere between those OF West Vir-
Einia and Maryland. This country is
settled throughout 1t has many large
towns along the state railroad, which
runs through it from one end 10 the
Otnor, ana the most OF ldnQS are Ill
vided UP into large estates.
In the north these estates are all I'M
der irrigation and 1t is only in the far
south that the rainfall is sufficient to
dispense with the artificial watering of
the crops. Much of the country is slightly
rolling. 1t is cut by many creeks and
little rivers which are fed by the Andean
SHOWS. Some of these streams carry
down a great deal of silt making fat
the lands over which they go. Others.
such as the Bio-bio. are as clear as crys-
tai from one years end to the other.
Crops in Sight Everywhere.
Riding southwark through this coun-
try, the scenery is far different from
that of the richest parts of the union.
There are crops in sight all the way. but
the fields are divided by rows OF tall
poplars or eucalyptus or with walls of
mud and stone rather than fences. 1t is
only along the railroad that there is any
barbed wire. The chief buildings to be
seen are the great rambling structures,
the homes OF the haciendados and the
mean mud-walled thatch-roofed huts Of
the laborers There are no barns stand
ing out on the fields, and no elevators
at the stations for storing the grain.
There are plenty of cattle and horses
but very few stables or outbuildings
The weather is so mild that the stock
Craze out of doors all the year round
and this is so all the way from Santiago
TO the Strait OF Magellan. Therefore
there are no haystacks or strawstacks
Such grass and alfalfa as are cut are put
up in bales and shipped to the cities OF
north to tine nitrate desert. where they
bring higher prices. The climate of thu
central valley is about the same as that
of lower California. save that there /,
less rain, and in the upper part OF II
nearly everything has to be irrigated
At present there are something Xix,
100000 acres now reached by artificial
canals and / am told that it is possibl,
TO put water upon as much more. Tn,
most Of the non-irrigated lands are il
the south. shall write more fully o.
them in the future.
Use OK Teams.
oxen everywhere take the place o
horses and mules. They are yoked {,
clumsy carts by wooden bars tied I,
their horns and are driven with lonl
goads with steel spikes in the ends
Nevertheless, the farming is well done
and on many estates it Is equal to tina
of the United States.
Nearly everywhere the business is o.
grand scale. In many parts of tho val
ley 200 acres is little more than a gar
den patch, and the irrigated farms o
5000 and even 10000 acres are common
There is one farm of 1000 acres, an
several which have 5000 and more
There are some very large vineyards
The estate of 10 Uurmenta contains 400