COUNTHY SPORTS AND LIFE IN 

 CHILE. 



The system of agriculture pursued in Chile is still of the 

 very rudest kind. The plough usually consists of merely 

 a log of woodj sharpened at the end, and shod with iron, 

 and guided by a wooden handle, precisely the same as the 

 indigenes did hundreds of years ago. The method of 

 winnowing is peculiar. A circle is formed of stout 

 stakes, in the centre of which the corn, or part of it, to 

 be thrashed and winnowed is placed ; a number of mares 

 are then driven in and made to gallop round the circle 

 close to the stakes, the ears of corn being from time to 

 time thrown from the heap in the centre on to the track 

 of the mares. This thrashes the corn, and the chaff is 

 afterwards separated by throwing it up in the air 

 on the first suitable day. Two men on horseback are 

 usually in the ring to urge on the mares ; these men are 

 usually very drunk, and are continually shouting out 

 " Yegua ! yegua ! " (mare) in an insane manner. They 

 frequently come " a cropper,^' when the whole of the 

 mares behind them of course run over them, and fre- 

 quently kill them outright. 



A rodeoj or collecting of cattle on an estate, happens 

 generally once a year. Some of them, such as those on 

 estates like the Compania or the Cauquenes, are affairs 

 that last four weeks, and frequently 10,000 head of 

 cattle and horses are collected together ; the plan is 

 simply to send out all the men that can possibly be 



