352 A VISIT TO THE COUNTRY. 



from Valparaiso shortly after arrival. If the journey occupies parts of two days, as it does most 

 frequently, and the traveller sleeps at Curacavi or Casa Blanca, the animals are allowed food, 

 and from six to eight hours for rest. Otherwise, unless heaviness of the road in winter some- 

 what lengthens the trip, the journey is accomplished in fourteen hours. The endurance of the 

 horses, however, is scarcely greater in comparison than that of the men who ride them, and 

 who frequently come up one day to Santiago thirty- two Spanish leagues, return on the follow- 

 ing, and so continue coming and going for a week or two in succession. With skill, fearless- 

 ness, and prudence, and so habituated to the saddle that they often sleep soundly whilst trotting 

 over the level plains, they are among the very best drivers in the world. Good riders, there- 

 fore, are found everywhere. Acquisition of the art is encouraged by the small price of horses, 

 and the very moderate sum six to ten cents per day for which one can be maintained. Except 

 for stock purposes^, few will purchase mares at any price ; nor will a gentleman mount one, unless 

 it be a rare animal, remarkable for beauty of form and gait. No satisfactory reason is given 

 why they are thus held in disrepute and all the drudgery of the hacienda exacted of them, while 

 horses revel in the clover-fields. Very superior animals are sometimes known to sell for ten to 

 fifteen ounces ($175 to $260), and if broken to harness may command $500 ; yet good ones, 

 capital saddle-horses, are purchased for an ounce ($17.25), and I remember being accosted 

 whilst ascending Santa Lucia one day to know if I did not want a little horse for my saddle ? 

 Some years ago a story was current of an officer who talked so much of his horse that he 

 believed in the reality of property purely imaginary, buying a saddle and bridle for the animal 

 when touching at a somewhat celebrated Spanish port on his way home. But here was a 

 guaso most earnestly persuading me to buy his caballito, to find use for a saddle which his 

 imagination had previously placed in my stable ! 



To return to the era, however. After the wheat is threshed out, the next process is to free 

 it from chaff and dirt,- a result attained by tossing it in the air with shovels, at some deviation 

 from the vertical. This is repeated until the grain is perfectly clean and ready to be stored, 

 awaiting sale. To considerable extent the freshness of the breeze influences this ; and it often 

 occurs that the trilla continues a fortnight, the participants keeping up their frolic until the 

 very last moment. 



One tenth of every product of the hacienda is collected by government. Elsewhere this 

 might afford data for determining the progress of cultivation and improvement ; but it is not 

 so here. Owing to their system of farming the diezmo (tythe), it is not possible to ascertain with 

 any degree of truth the quantity of any product in the republic, or even in a single province. 

 The fortunate bidder takes care to conceal how much he receives from the haciendados, lest 

 new competitors attend the auction in the following year. By those most competent to judge, 

 the product of the wheat crop for the year 1850 was estimated at not short of 5,000,000 fanegas, 

 or 11,250,000 bushels. The surplus exported in 1851 amounted to 170,732 bushels of wheat, 

 366,510 bags of flour of two hundred pounds each, and 7,867,200 pounds of biscuit. The 

 exports of that year were considerably affected by the closing of the port of Concepcion during 

 the revolutionary difficulty. In 1850 there were 405,544 bushels of wheat, 321,798 bags of flour, 

 and 1,874,300 pounds of bread. On the assumption that the population of the country is one 

 and a half millions of souls, if so great an amount was obtained from the harvest, there must 

 have been 400 pounds retained for the consumption of every individual ! The reader has been 

 given a proof of the difficulties of obtaining reliable data on page 56. 



Greatly more important in one sense, if not in the aggregate so valuable, is the bean crop 

 a vegetable which at this day constitutes a larger proportion of the food of the laboring classes 

 than the above data indicate. If we look to the number who rarely eat bread, except of the 

 . very coarsest kind, it may be doubted whether failure of the wheat or bean crop would be most 

 deplored. It is a favorite dish at all seasons, but is more especially so during the absence of 

 fruits. Sixteen or seventeen varieties are grown, all of them nutritious, valuable, easily culti- 

 vated, and yielding an abundant return for the labor bestowed. When the crop is matured^ 



