Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1925-04-01

(Frepared By the National Geographic So
ciety. Washington. d. CO
With the spring blowing of our farm
ers just ahead of us, we of North
America, where farms are reasonably
level and broad, might find it interest
Ing to consider the kind of farming
that was carried on by very early
Americans, the Incas and the pre-Incas
In the narrow valleys of Peru. What
these people did is of more than
academic interest, for on their farms
they developed for us the potato, the
worlds most important food vegetable,
and probably originated corn, toma-
toes, and a number of other plants
hardly be exaggerated.
The outstanding feature of ancient
Peruvian agriculture is that it was car
ried on largely on narrow terraces la
boriously constructed on steep slopes.
This may be said to be the most spe-
pecially when the soil of the terraces
Is built up artificially. Such terraces
are found in many other countries,
though 1t is doubtful whether any
equal those of Peru. There the arti-
fetal construction of the soil surface
was not limited to the terraced slopes,
but was also undertaken in large areas
of reclaimed land in the bottoms of the
valleys. The courses of the rivers were
narrowed and Strengthened by strong
walls, and then the land behind the
walls was filled in, and finally a sur
face layer of fine agricultural soil was
put on.
The narrow floors and steep walls Of
rocky valleys that would appear utter
~ worthless and hopeless to our engl-
neers were transformed, literally made
over, into fertile lands, and were the
homes of teeming populations in the
prehistoric days That the work was
well done there can be no possibility
of doubt, for many thousands of acres
of these artificial lands are still fertile
and are the chief support of the mod
ern population of the valleys. The ma
tive people take the amazing works of
the ancients as a matter of course, as
we accept the natural features that
surround us, and are no more inclined
than we are to such impossible under
takings as the ancient people accom-
pliShed.
Stone-Walled Terraces.
The most strikingly artificial feature
of the ancient Peruvian agriculture
was the covering of steep slopes with
narrow terraces, supported by stone
walls and watered by aqueducts built
Tor many miles along the precipitous
slopes of the mountains. Some of the
terraces, those that characterize the
Megalithic age of Peru, were built of
enormous stones, often of very irregu-
lar form, fitted together with wonder
full nicely.
The labor expended in the construc.
ton of these terraces shows that they
served some purpose that the builders
considered very important. We learn
from the early Spanish historians that
the Incas had special gardens for rails
ing the potatoes of the royal house
I hold, and that there was a general be.
lief among the people that the growth
of crops and the fecundity of the
flocks We're acutely dependent upon
the welfare Of the royal family Hence
there was an underlying practical rea.
son for the deep solicitude of the peo-
pie, so often remarked by the early
historians, "That it might be well with
the Inca"
The work that the prehistoric build
ers accomplished is still beyond our
comprehension. Nobody has explained
how it was done or how ii could be
done Indeed, the modern Indians deny
that it ever was done, preferring to
believe that it was the work of en-.
chantment. Huge rocks that could
have been moved only with the great
est difficulty and by the combined la
Dor of hundreds of people are never
theless fitted together with incredible
nicely. To say that there are seams
too fine TO insert knife-edges or tissue
paper leaves the story only partly told
There Is no room for inserting any
thing. since the surfaces are actually
In contact.
With some of the finest work. at OIL
lantaytambo, the joints are in man,
places too fine to be seen by the naked
eye. A lens becomes necessary tc
make sure that there is really sean
and not merely superficial groove. O,
false joint. The fitting of the stone:
has been compared to the grinding o.
glass shoppers into bottles, which !,
the best analogy thus far suggested
But how can anybody credit the ldes
Of grinding together with such ac
curacy fhe edges of stones that weigh
! tons? Obviously the edges must hay.
neen ground before the stones wer,