VALPARAISO. 



oven more rapidly than the advance in California, at the beginning of 1852 wheat could not be 

 bought for less than t\v. -nt \ -!'.. ur mils the fanega. Thinking the haciendados would be forced to 

 sell as they wmild havr l. < -u almost anywhere else millers were unwilling to buy in quantity 

 on such terms, and they took very little more than met the immediate home consumption. But 

 they were doomed to be disappointed. The producers, for the first time, saw a chance of making 

 fortunes by their rMatrs; and they were resolved to have their share of the Californian profits. 

 Tlin . < nil estates larger than some of the European principalities, and no small farmers, 



who arc dependent on certain sales of products to obtain other supplies, as in the United States and 

 Europe; indeed, in many cases. proprietors are wholly unable to spend their annual incomes. 

 Moreover, as the loss by insects or deterioration is very trifling, they can well afford to hold back 

 a crop unless their own price is offered. For this reason, except the quantities demanded for the 

 country, grain remained stored until, from the superabundant crop of 1851 in the United States, 

 flour could not only be shipped to California again, but a cargo in search of a market was 

 actually sold in Valparaiso at a very liberal advance. 



The haciendados had made a blunder, and it may prove a most unfortunate one. They can 

 cultivate wheat advantageously at from twelve to thirteen reals the fanega; but by forcing the 

 price to more than double that sum, as they did at last, they induced North American millers to 

 seek means to combat the heats of the equator. The success of the Yankee in whatever he un- 

 dertakes has become proverbial ; and by kiln-drying his flour, if he has not effectually excluded 

 the product of Chile from the California market, his clipper-ships have rendered him a formidable 

 competitor for its profits. One of the reasons alleged for the high prices which began in 1850 was 

 the old song, "short crop;" but, from conversation with several haciendados who produce exten- 

 sively, the fact that 53,251,300 pounds of flour and 7,306 fanegas of wheat were shipped to a 

 market it had not been accustomed to supply, and my knowledge of a national characteristic which 

 would prevent even new wheat-fields from being brought under cultivation, I give little credit to 

 the plea. It is quite probable there was a scarcity at the close of 1850, and before the new crop 

 was harvested; "but it arose from the temptations to shipments, not from niggardliness of the 

 soil, or from diseases of the plant. The total amounts of flour and wheat exported during the 

 year were 64,359,600 pounds of the former, valued at $1,892,548, and 181,125 fanegas of the 

 latter, worth $360,728. During the same period, the quantity of biscuit furnished vessels in 

 the harbors for their own use and shipment abroad was 1,874,300 pounds, at a valuation of 

 $74,952. 



After wheat, the two agricultural products that have assisted most in paying national indebt- 

 edness are barley and beans ; the former yielding for exportation 109,469 fanegas, equal to 

 $216,388; and the latter 51,225 fanegas, equal to $136,737. 



The product of the haciendas that has been the most universally received in part payment, is 

 hides ; the aggregate of which shipped in 1850 was 57,605, producing $143,395 ; and this is 

 nearly the whole sum that the surface of the earth offers to nations beyond Cape Horn. Some 

 70,740 pounds of salted beef ($15,518) are also sold to shipping, and the horns and hoofs of cattle 

 likewise go ; but these are trifling matters. Of charqui (sun-dried beef) there were 89,075 pounds, 

 suet and tallow 59,225, and tallow candles 65,500 pounds. Allowing each pound of charqui 

 to represent three of undried beef, and that the number of hides exported represent two thirds 

 of the actual number slaughtered, as each head of cattle will weigh about 600 pounds, we have 

 for a minimum home consumption about 45,700,000 pounds of fresh beef. 



With such multitudes of cattle as some of the haciendas possess, one would expect to find 

 ample supplies of butter and cheese for exportation ; yet such is so far from being the case, that, 

 strange as it may appear, there are estates with many thousands of heads where there is not 

 only no butter for family use, but sometimes not even milk. At the same time, there is no 

 country where better wool could be produced at a less cost, or which has greater water-power at 

 command than this, southward of the thirty-third parallel ; yet, from absolute negligence in the 

 care of sheep and subsequent mismanagement of the staple, its market value is scarcely half that of 



