356 A VISIT TO THE COUNTRY. 



generally the weight of the fruit and foliage will keep them on the ground. Quite a large 

 quantity of wine is made from grapes which ripen in this manner, the soil imparting a peculiar 

 though hy no means an unpleasant aroma. This mosto (literally must), as it is called, has 

 a hody and flavor between that of port and claret, with more saccharine matter than either a 

 quality that would render it more easily preserved in wood than is claret. As it is produced at 

 a very low rate, arid gains favor with consumers most rapidly, it might he imported to great 

 advantage. In 1848, when California had purchasers for every article of consumption, some 

 21,000 gallons were shipped from the republic, of which more than one fourth went to that 

 golden land. During" the same year Talcahuano, Constitucion, and Valdivia sent 150,000 

 gallons to other ports of the republic ; yet in 1850, whilst they supplied the same ports with 

 double that quantity, the foreign export fell off to less than 2,500 gallons. 



This the month of April is the most busy period of the year. The squash, bean,, potato, 

 and other root crops, are also to be harvested ; grapes and squashes are to be hung up for 

 winter use, and the beans are to be threshed out. As rains not unfrequently occur during 

 the latter part of the month, and the inquilinos and many of the peons have also their 

 patches of cultivated ground whose products are of primary consequence to them, all 

 necessarily "make hay while the sun shines;" for a rain on the bean-pods when they lie in 

 heaps ready for threshing is almost certain cause of loss, and a loss to the poor which their 

 ordinarily improvident habits badly qualify them for encountering. 



Other sources of profit are immense herds of cattle. These range the mountainous portions 

 of the haciendas where cultivation is impracticable. On one or two of the larger estates as 

 many as 20,000 head are numbered ; and as the annual disposable increase is estimated at one 

 fourth, and the average value of each animal will scarcely fall below $12, the income from this 

 item alone will amount to $50,000 after all expenses are paid. Although there are years when 

 the mortality of all ages in the single province of Colchagua has been 15,000 head, at a value 

 exceeding $100,000, yet cattle are regarded as their most valuable source of revenue. Supposing 

 the ratio resulting from the statistics of Maule applicable to the whole country, the horned cattle 

 in Chile will number 1,125,000. This coincides precisely with the ratio existing in the United 

 States at the census of 1850. 



The causes of mortality do not - appear to be thoroughly comprehended. When rains are 

 very copious during the winter months of some years, and much disease among them follows, 

 these are alleged as the origin. On the other hand, if rains are unusually unfrequent, the 

 pestilence is attributed to the dry weather. The picada an epidemic said to have been 

 introduced with cattle from the pampas of Buenos Ayres has become quite common. This is 

 easily recognised and is eminently fatal. During its. early stage the animal shows indifference 

 to food, its eyes become heavy and languid, and stupor ensues. If remedies be applied 

 promptly, the chances are equal that the beast may be saved ; otherwise, within a few hours 

 the evacuations become frequent and bloody, and the animal dies in a little while, its whole 

 interior seeming to have been discharged in this form. As the disease almost always occurs 

 during summer, when the stock are fattest, very poor peons will at times be tempted to eat of 

 the flesh, or may do so in ignorance of the cause of death an indulgence which invariably 

 prostrates them. In the human subject the malady produces violent fever and frightful 

 swelling of some part of the person. At times only the lips are affected ; at others the hands 

 or arms ; again only the feet or legs ; and, though such instances are rare, sometimes the 

 whole body is dilated. So thoroughly does the poison penetrate the system of cattle, that 

 whoever touches the skin of one under its influence becomes immediately inoculated ; the horse 

 over whose back is laid the skin of an animal that has perished under it, soon swells and dies 

 in terrific convulsions. Yet dogs eat of the carcass with impunity. Though men attacked 

 still suffer dreadfully, the disease has become controllable by remedies, and its terrors have 

 measurably departed under knowledge of this fact, and that when once experienced one cannot 

 take it again; Another recognised, though, as yet, incurable malady, is called "La Aratia" 



