DISTRIBUTION OP INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES. i'l 



the route through Mdipilla, from San Antonio de las Bodega* to the capital; and Maypu, 



Alfjiic, and JViiiiiM. in tin- M.iit hwotrrn .|iiarti-r of the province. San Antonio, the only 



ro.-id-tc.-id rrci|ui-ntcd li\ CM.-ivtiirj \ ahout t Im-i- miles to the north of the Maypu. From 



themv the agricultural products of tin- maritime portion are shipped to Valparaiso, to which 

 ( 'iLstoms district it Ill-longs. The quantity of wheat shipped in I S50 was 243,000 bushel*. It* 

 inhabitants are mostly fishermen, who send daily supplies to Melipilla and Santiago, and offer 

 at the metropolitan market fish which had he-en taken from the sea on the preceding morning. 

 Strange as it may appear, they are in much better condition when they arrive during the 

 summer, than in the colder weather of winter warm, dry air being a better preservative from 

 decay than that which is cool, but moist. 



Until a canal to conduct water from the Maypu to the Mapocho was cut along the base of 

 the Andes, cultivation in the central districts of the province was limited to the immediate 

 vicinity of the streams. Nor was the full value of the canal appreciated until quite recently. 

 Apparently large tracts of land were composed only of sand and shingle, on which it is waste of 

 time to spend labor or seed ; but as the Maypu water was found to deposite mineral sediments 

 rapidly, and these were just the fertilizers needed in this porous soil, these unpromising fields 

 have been cleared of the larger stones little by little, and now there is scarcely an unoccupied 

 level space between the two rivers. A desert has literally been made to bloom and blossom 

 here, though to the northward of the Mapocho there is still scarcity of water, without the pros- 

 pect of augmenting the supply until the climate shall change, or each proprietor provides an 

 artesian well, capable of furnishing it for his fields. Nevertheless, the little valleys about 

 the Colina and Lampa yield more than three-fold the quantity consumed by their populations; 

 and with such modes of cultivation as are followed in the United States, they would produce 

 ten-fold. Here it was (at Colina) that one of our countrymen reaped at three harvests more 

 than two hundred fold from one sowing of rye. Cultivation de route is also practised to 

 some extent, and there are fields of wheat and barley on the sides of the Andes quite 3,000 

 feet above the sea. Olives, oranges/ lemons, figs, grapes, and all the fruits of temperate zones, 

 grow well ; though from the extreme dryness of the air in summer, the skin of apples and 

 peaches often cracks, and the fruit has little juiciness. But the quantities of every class are 

 enormous ; and could the people only be induced to give some little attention to the trees or 

 vines by judicious selection of varieties, or even occasional pruning of those they hare, there 

 is no country in the world which would produce more perfect specimens. 



The ravines and mountain sides, of which each large estate owns a portion, serve for rearing 

 herds of neat cattle, horses, and sheep ; for whose care there are special men to drive the flocks 

 to new localities, as fast as the herbage and pasture grounds they range become denuded. Some 

 haciendas possess as many as 20,000 head of neat cattle, from the increase of which, at least one 

 fourth may be annually disposed of; and "charqui," (sun-dried beef), hides, grease and 

 tallow, form large items in the home and extra-provincial trade. 



Nor is Santiago destitute of mineral wealth. Gold, silver, lead, copper, cobalt, zinc and 

 iron, gypsum, alabaster, kaolin, salt, marble, sulphate of barytes, and sulphate of alumina, 

 are all to be found in different localities, and some of them in large quantities. If we are to 

 believe the earlier writers, the quantity of gold attainable here atone period must have formed 

 one of the reasons influencing Valdivia to its selection for his residence. Garcilaso de la Vega 

 says, that the vassals of Valdivia paid an annual tribute of more than a hundred thousand dol- 

 lars. Another writer states that " fifteen Indians were able to extract daily from 400 to 603 

 ducats;" and there remain evidences on the haciendas of Pay en, the Cerros Amarillos, and 

 Aculeo, and the whole chain extending from Algiie to the village of Peumo, which prove them 

 to have been wrought extensively for this coveted metal. Only one mine that of la Leona, 

 near Rancagua is now in operation. Mining for silver ore was found profitable only at three 

 or four localities ; all but three of which have been discontinued either by reason of lawsuits, 

 or from want of means to prosecute the works further. The mines of San Pedro Nolasco, at 

 7 



