362 



A VISIT TO THE COUNTRY. 



case at sunset they are covered with dry hides. Four days, during summer, will render the 

 charqui fit for packing ; and it is then compressed into bundles, of 100 and 200 pounds each, 

 enclosed in net- work made with strips of hide. A dexterous man, assisted by two boys, will 

 earn from four to five reals per day, three reals being paid for the dissection of each carcass. 

 Whilst he slices the lumps of meat, the boys clean the stomach and strip the fat from the 

 entrails and bones. If no one offer to purchase, the heads and hearts become the property of 

 the matanzeros (butchers), the liver and part of the entrails seeming to be the only portions 

 not used by man. However, there are a sufficient number of dogs and carrion birds without 

 the corral to dispute with each other these rejected parts. On one side of the enclosure there 

 are large caldrons where the fat and grease are thoroughly boiled, the crushed bones being sub- 

 mitted to the same process. This grasa is poured into the cleansed stomachs whilst warm, 

 and, being preserved from contact with air, remains sweet a long time. It is universally used in 

 cooking instead of butter or hogs' lard. Tallow is moulded in large blocks, without external 

 protection. Skins serve for the covering of carts, leather, and a thousand domestic purposes for 

 which manufactories elsewhere have provided substitutes, and are exported. Tallow for can- 

 dles, and such horns as are not consumed in rude implements of the country, have of late years 

 found their way to Valparaiso for shipment abroad. 



The slaughter and preparation of cattle becomes very profitable. If the proprietor purchase 

 for the purpose, the first cost will range from $16 to $20, his subsequent expenses from $4 to $6, 

 and the return is from $30 to $35. Several who have no suitable lands for raising cattle depend 

 wholly on other estates for their supplies. There are many others, who not only have sufficient 

 numbers to kill, but have also large herds from which to supply the markets of the cities. On 

 the estate "La Compania," 2,500 animals are annually converted into charqui. No meat is 

 salted on the haciendas, and at Valparaiso the small quantity put up is exclusively for the 

 use of shipping; so that charqui becomes almost the only meat consumed by the poor and 

 laboring classes. If we suppose one fourth of the estimated number in the country to be killed 

 each year, viz: 281,250 head of cattle, these, at 400 pounds each, would give us 112,500,000 

 pounds of flesh, of which the exports in 1850 were: 



Then if each pound of dried meat represent three in its green state, the hides twenty pounds 

 each, hoofs one, and horns three, the total exports will have been only 3,266,500 pounds; and 

 thus we establish that the home market requires nearly all this product of the haciendas. 



It will have been observed that "A Visit to the Country" embraces the occupations of a 

 haciendado's life at very different seasons of the year, of which personal knowledge could have 

 been obtained only at successive epochs. Such was actually the case, though neither of the 

 subsequent visits was so long as the first, and it has been thought better to connect them in 

 the present manner. 



After spending a week most charmingly, the recipient of hospitality as cordially extended as 

 it was gratefully received, my host returned with me to Santiago by the old road, passing through 



