114 CHILE - MISCELLANEOUS 



Among industries connected with the preparation of vegetable produce 

 must be noted the making of flour and bread, sugar refining (i), the very 

 flourishing breweries, the making of macaroni and of jams, and the 

 utiHsation of timber especially for furniture making. 



Among industries connected with animal produce, the first place is 

 taken by tanning and the making of soles and of shoes; then come the pre- 

 serving of meat, refining of fats, and soap-making. Other industries which 

 must not be forgotten are weaving, the manufacture of paper, glass, etc. 



According to a recent report of the Consul General of Chile in Italy, 

 the factories now working are 5,722 in number, with a motor force of 

 H. P. 61,046, distributed among 2,945 motors ; the capital employed is 

 472,000.000 fr. ; the raw material imported was calculated in 1912 at 

 106,000,000 fr., the raw material of the country itself was 195,000,000 fr. 

 and the annual production of the factories was 536,000,000 fr. 



§ 3. Agricultural produce. 



In Chile agriculture has followed a different course to that it has taken 

 in other new countries with temperate climates. Fifty years ago, Chile 

 supplied the Argentine RepubHc, Australia, California and Peru wnth grain 

 and flour, but now it takes a subordinate place, as an exporter of these 

 articles. 



The exportation of wheat, which in 1845 was 4,000 tons, rose in 1887 to 

 124,000 tons, but fell in 1890 to 28,927 tons, and in 1911 to 13,841 tons. 

 The export of flour also diminished from 129,000 tons in 1887 to 32,000 

 in 1890 and even to 5,150 in 1911. 



This is due to the radical change in the system of colonisation and of 

 the agricultural development of large and fertile countries like Argentina, 

 the United States, Canada and Australia, which offer more favourable con- 

 ditions for production. 



Chilian agriculture has therefore been obliged to concentrate itself 

 on the home market, but the wide field which this offers has enabled agri- 

 culture to develop in spite of reduced exportation. 



And in fact production has continued to increase, owing to the increased 

 capacity of the home market since the annexation of the nitrous zone in the 

 provinces of Tacna and Arica conquered from Peru in 1884. 



As there are no statistics for earlier years, we can only give the estimates 

 of private authorities, according to which the wheat growing area was in 

 1870, 1880 and 1885, respectively, 270,980 ha., 297,127 ha. and 292,979 ha. 

 According to official statistics, the area devoted to wheat is now about 

 418,000 hectares (2). 



(i) The sugar is imported raw from Peru. 



(2) From unofficial returns it appears that the grain growing area is about one million hec- 

 tares. 



