THE TECHNOLOGIST. [April 1, 1865. 



418 THE INDIGENOUS VEGETATION OP 



through a like distance to W.S.W. On an adjacent hill, now called the 

 Cerro de las Tres Graces, there are the ruins of an ancient fort or bury- 

 ing place. Across the river, and half a league distant from Monte 

 Abierto, there is still a small Indian village called Bibiante, and a 

 league lower down the much larger village of La Huaca, where many 

 of the merchants of Payta have their country houses, but which suffi- 

 ciently indicates by its name that it was formerly a place of sepulture 

 of the ancient Peruvians. 



There were already at Monte Abierto some half-dozen scattered huts 

 of Indians and others, who held chacras on the vega, rented from the 

 proprietor, Senor Arese ; but for working the cotton farm it has been 

 found expedient to induce other families to settle there by offering to 

 each a chacra and a house. 



The cotton plantation of Monte Abierto appears now as a plain of 

 some 400 acres in extent, mostly reclaimed from the algarrobo forest, which 

 encircles it on every side except that of the river, and of that s^ace from 

 two or three hundred acres are covered with luxuriant cotton plants, and 

 with the necessary farm buildings, and the houses and chacras of the 

 "colonos," as the resident mechanics and farm labourers are called. 

 The engine-house, gin-house, warehouses, and workshops stand about a 

 hundred yards away from the river and parallel to it, the water being 

 conveyed to the engine in a canal lined with boards dug sufficiently 

 deep to be always supplied with water, even when the river is at its 

 lowest. All these buildings, as well as the dwelling-house, have the 

 floors, walls, and roofs plastered with hydraulic cement, made from an 

 argillaceous limestone obtained at the base of the hills of Mancora. It 

 is hard and looks very neat, but is not quite so waterproof as might be 

 desired. The drying-ground, whereon the recently picked cotton is 

 spread out in the sun, is also floored with the same cement. 



From these buildings a lane, fifty feet broad, fenced in on each side 

 and skirted with an avenue of willows, runs out northward to the pre- 

 sent boundary of the farm, and at some 200 yards up it there is a cross 

 lane of the same wddth, running east and west. At the crossing there is 

 an oval space called the " plaza," and a little below it is the commodious 

 dwelling-house, with attached flower and kitchen gardens. 



Along the lanes on each side are square enclosures, of a little more 

 than an acre, each with its cottage in front. These are the chacras of the 

 colonists, who plant as much of them as they choose with vegetables for 

 their own use, and the rest with cotton, which is sold to the proprietor 

 at the market price. This plan has been found to answer so well that 

 Mr. Garland has never any lack of workmen, and has indeed had appli- 

 cations for more chacras than he cares to let. 



Over the engine-house a small observatory has been constructed, 

 whence there is a magnificent view up and down the valley. Here, 

 indeed, the proprietor might sit and " farm with a telescope and speak- 

 ing-trumpet," as Sydney Smith proposed to do. 



