DISTRIBUTION OF INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES. 53 



has not only f..nm -.1 M.il I'm- tin- roots of forest-trees quite low, but these retain moisture which 

 permits cultivation on a much larger pn>p.i ti..n of hiirl'are than in Santiago. Even between 

 tin- mitral rangr ami the coast there are M.-IIMV.- arabht plain*. All the great staples of the 

 country whrat, barley, corn, IMMIIIH, i . hemp, flax grow luxuriantly and yield largely, 



as *ln alsn tin- vim-yard ami orchard plants. 



As excellent pasturage may be obtained within the ravines of the Cordilleras all the year, 

 cattle-raising is considered more lucrative than crops of wheat, &c., although there are few 

 years when there are not great numbers lost by disease. The most fatal epidemic to which 

 they are subject is called "la picada." It usually attacks them in summer, when they are 

 fattest, and so poisons the whole system that every man or beast touching the skin, after death 

 of the animal, becomes infected. Very few cattle recover, unless the disease is immediately 

 discovered, and many herdsmen formerly fell victims to it; but a successful mode of treating 

 the human patient has of late been ascertained, and it is no longer held in such dread. 

 Some years 14,000 or 15,000 animals die, the mortality among them being sometimes 

 attributed to the very heavy rains of winter, at others to the want of rain, and consequent loss 

 of pasturage, and again at others to la picada; which last is alleged to have been introduced 

 from the Buenos Ay res pampas. It has been estimated that the annual average loss by disease 

 and birds (Condors) and beasts (Pumas) of prey, will amount to at least $100,000. There 

 are no published statistics of the products of Colchagua; but the best informed persons state 

 that more than one half are sent elsewhere for consumption. Its known mineral resources are 

 comparatively insignificant. A gold mine, called Yaquil, near the former Lake Taguatagua, 

 was worked by an American for several years, and it is said that there are rich copper mines 

 in the vicinity of Curico. No doubt much copper and gold remain in its mountains, await- 

 ing the enterprise and energy of man to develop them. In 1850 the revenue of the province 

 amounted to $73,058, and its expenses to $69,679. 



TALCA. Talca, originally a department of Colchagua erected into a province in 1833 has 

 the Lontue and Mataquito for its northern, the Maule for its southern, and the crests of the 

 Andes and the Pacific respectively for its eastern and western limits. Its superficial area is 

 about 2,200 square miles, divided into the departments of Lontue and Talca, which comprise 

 19 sub-delegations and 96 districts. The provincial capital, having the same name, and 

 Molina, the chief city of the department of Lontue, are elsewhere described; and to that 

 account ("A Visit to the Southward") reference is also made for other details of the resources 

 and trade of the province. No city in the republic exhibits evidences of rapid and substantial 

 growth equal to Talca ; which, but for the blunder of locating it in the middle of the plain, 

 instead of at the mouth of the Rio Claro, must have attained far greater importance than it 

 now possesses. Pelanco, Lircay, Colin, Corcolen, Pencahiie, are the other towns, nearly all 

 of which are in the southwestern quarter of the province, where the character of the soil and the 

 greater abundance of water have concentrated three fourths of the total population. Within 

 widely spread precincts, as is mentioned of Colin, some of these towns contain more than 

 5,000 inhabitants. Its traffic with other provinces is mostly carried on through Constitucion, 

 a port of entry at the mouth of the river Maule. 



West of the Central cordilleras, though generally hilly, there is a greater extent of level and 

 cultivated surface than in any similar district of the more northern provinces. Several rivulets 

 water it, and it abounds with timber of good size and quality for every species of construction. 

 Northward from Talca, quite a large tract is overlaid by a volcanic stratum, on which the 

 superficial soil is so thin that productive cultivation must for ever be prevented. The tufa is as 

 often at as below the surface, is generally from two to three feet thick, and lies nearly parallel 

 with it ; whilst the country is at the same time so undulating that artificial irrigation could 

 not be adopted, unless at very great cost. Wheat is sown wherever there is sufficient surface 

 soil, the proprietors hoping for rain to nourish and mature the plants. Here the plain is from 

 ten to twelve Spanish leagues wide, bounded on one side by a lofty range with evergreen forests 



