56 POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND 



Of the 750 square leagues embraced within its limits, mountains and forests occupy one 

 half. Another portion is barren, and there remain 260 leagues arable. As we advance south- 

 erly, spring rains are more frequent, and summer showers not uncommon ; the supply of water 

 from the mountains is greater, and the soil and air preserve their humidity far into the latter 

 season. Therefore, there is little or no risk in planting anywhere on the plain, although the 

 surfaces of the streams are so much below its general level as to render artificial irrigation 

 difficult. Only 10,000 acres, or the seventy-fifth part of the arable land, is thus watered. As 

 a rule, the soil of the Andes and central range is composed of vegetable mould, well suited to 

 cultivation ; and as there are springs of water in all directions, many small tracts have been 

 cleared of their forests and are planted in vines and wheat. Higher, natural pasturages 

 abound ; and there the herdsmen take up their residences until driven down by the rains and 

 snows of winter. The plain is composed of the same materials as farther north deposited in 

 the great flood through the antique gulf, and overlaid with small portions of mineral and vege- 

 table sediments, whose productive qualities have not been fully developed for want of proper 

 implements, enterprise, and industry. However, from the fact that it does not receive the 

 annual mineral deposite under artificial irrigation, it is probable that Maule is not so productive 

 as the more central provinces. So many obstacles to agriculture present themselves, that the 

 territory actually under cultivation in 1842 amounted to only fourteen leagues square. Some of 

 these difficulties are stated by the commissioners to be: "The vicinity of other agricultural 

 provinces ;" "the cost of transportation to Constitucion, at one extremity of the province, or 

 to Tome, in the province of Concepcion, even farther away, and over worse roads ;" and "the 

 want of capital." The result of their investigations showed that the mean yield of wheat was 

 13| fold, barley 24, corn 41, beans 13^, and potatoes 15; proving quite conclusively how 

 much the provinces from Aconcagua to Talca owe to mineral manure. 



In order to arrive at the true condition of the agriculture of any country, it is necessary to 

 know the exact quantity of its products. In Chile, one would suppose this attainable readily 

 and with great approximation to accuracy, from the returns of the "diezmo" (tithe) and "ca- 

 tastro" (land tax), both of which are based on the annual products of each estate. But the 

 commissioners say : ' ' The diezmo is commonly paid with so few conscientious scruples (religi- 

 osidad), that from its returns the crops harvested do not amount to more than one fortieth of 

 the products known to have been consumed. The catastro is so arranged and distributed 

 as to serve still less than the diezmo for reliable data; and individual investigations, even 

 if made by persons interested in the results, are often rendered nugatory by arousing suspicion 

 among the laborers and ignorant." The least fallible mode then, and that which was adopted 

 by them, was based on knowledge of the habits of the population, the products entering into 

 trade, either extracted or introduced, and the number of souls. They assumed, as the average 

 consumption of each individual 



2J fanegas wheat, i fanega peas, fanega beans, 



J do. corn, J do. barley, 46 cabbages ; 



$ do. potatoes, 



and supposing one fifth of the crop to have been reserved for seed and lost, there should have 

 been harvested for food 



344,848 fanegas of wheat. 62,800 fanegas of peas, 31,350 fanegas of beans, 



93,849 do. corn, 31,350 do. barley, 5,642,868 cabbages ; 



93,849 do. potatoes, 



instead of which, the returns only show 



260,807 fanegas of wheat, 15,438 fanegas of peas, 12,380 fanegas of beans, 



15,438 do. corn, 18,056 do. barley, 1,909,000 cabbages. 



15,382 do. potatoes, 



From these last numbers at least one sixth part should be deducted as having been grown in 

 the department of San Carlos, then forming part of the province, but now belonging to that 



