A VISIT TO THE COUNTRY. 353 



the legume is threshed from the pod in the same manner as wheat. The plants are liable to 



mildew, at the same time, iin<l IV. mi tin- muses producing the pol.villo on wheat. Injury to the 

 two crops may pmcr.-d pan passu. 



Mui/r, or Indian corn, which is less liahh- t<> di.-cjise, might be cultivated to a far greater extent 

 than it is; and it will he mie day, when \\\c patron intn.du.-.-., l.n-ad made l'i..m its meal mi his 

 own table. At present, very little more is grown than to supply the. cui^iimption wln-n in u 

 green state. The plant does not thrive well in Chile, and seed very greatly degenerate in a 

 few years ; so that the ears arc small, and the grain has an ungainly, shrivelled look. Inade- 

 quate preparation of the land, a hot, dry atmosphere by day, arid a temperature 20 colder at 

 night, all conspire to produce these results. 



Barley is a staple cultivated for the food of animals quite as generally as for man. It takes 

 the place of oats as winter provender, and of green pasturage in the arid mining districts. AM 

 far south as Colchagua, wheat and barley occupy the largest portion of tilled ground. The 

 return is from twenty-five to forty for one sown, and the berry of the former, besides attaining 

 superior size and whiteness, has an average weight exceeding sixty-six pounds to the bushel. 

 Rye-seed were brought from the United States a few years ago by an American gentleman, who 

 intended to distil whiskey from the product. A distillery was imported at the same time, and 

 put up at Colina, near which the grain was duly planted. There the ground is extremely rich, 

 and, with moderate care, one hundred bushels were obtained for every one planted, so that dis- 

 tillation was commenced at once. When the time came to sow again, there had been so little 

 demand for whiskey that it was not deemed advisable, more especially as plants were already 

 growing very freely from the seed scattered at the preceding harvest. Watering these when 

 necessary, no less than forty times the original sowing was obtained at the second crop ; and in 

 the third year twenty-fold more was actually reaped, without even a drop of water having been 

 turned on the land in the dry season ! But the attempt to make Chilenos drink whiskey instead 

 of aguardiente proved a failure, and it was not worth while to accumulate a useless grain. 

 From that time its culture was abandoned, and now rye cannot be found in the country. This 

 statement was given me by the experimentalist himself, a quiet old gentleman from Rhode 

 Island. 



It has been said that there is a vineyard more or less extensive to each of the larger haciendas ; 

 though greater attention is given to the vine, or rather they have a greater proportion of their 

 estates in vines, in the southern half of Chile; and, were there competent persons to supervise 

 the process of wine-making, a very superior article could be prepared at low rates. Next after 

 wheat, the product of the vineyard is of most consequence to the haciendado, the consump- 

 tion of chacoli, chicha, and arguardiente, by the lower orders, demanding immense quantities 

 of grapes for their fabrication. Chacoli is the unfermented juice of the grape only, and 

 in taste is not unlike cider. Ghicha is obtained by boiling chacoli or lagrimilla (lagrimas, 

 tears), as the grape-juice is called, when just expressed. Green fruit seems preferred for 

 making chicha; nor do the manufacturers confine themselves to grapes, but use apples and 

 pears also. Boiling hastens fermentation, before which the liquor is not saleable. Aguardi- 

 ente is made by distillation of the skins, pulp, and seed loft from the chicha, with a portion of 

 the lagrimilla. 



As the soil appears to be well suited, and the facilities for irrigation at will prevent vines from 

 suffering during long summer droughts, the yield is not only abundant, but the grapes are of 

 many and fine qualities. A certain demand for them, either as fruit or as one of the beverages 

 mentioned, makes it more profitable to haciendados near the towns to cultivate grapes than 

 wheat. My friend's vineyards are quite extensive. In favorable years they afford him 40,000 

 gallons of lagrimilla ; in unfavorable ones, perhaps not more than half that quantity. His 

 60,000 plants occupy about eighty acres of ground in parallel rows, six or seven feet apart. 

 They have trenches at the roots, in which water may pass from one to another across the entire 

 enclosure. Each plant in his vineyards is sustained by a pole about four feet high, and they 

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