alcohol factories, while the corn used for feeding animals is 
about 100,000 hectolitres. The above shows that the aggregate 
amount produced in the country is half a million hectolitres. 
BEANS. 
The most important of farinaceous plants in Chile is the bean, 
because of the superior quality and quantity of the production. 
Its geographical distribution is similar to that of wheat. Al¬ 
though beans are not grown in the tranverse valleys of the 
northern part of the country on such a large scale as in other 
places, they occupy a large portion of the territory between the 
Aconcagua and Nuble rivers and farther south they are sub¬ 
stituted with peas, lentils and “ garbanzos.” 
The cultivation of beans has just been started on non-irrigated 
lowlands to the south of Aconcagua river, near the sea coast. 
Bean growing on non-irrigated land increases to the south, and 
extends also over the mountainous and lowlands of the central 
district. 
Beans and corn are planted together in Chile and the land 
sown is called “ Chacras.” Odd pieces of land are rented out by 
the small farmer, or worked on shares with the ranch owner. It 
is also customary for the latter to cede a half “cuadra” of land 
for cultivating “ Chacras ” to the small farmer—these are called 
“ Inquilinos.” 
Beans are planted throughout October and November in rows 
of from one-half to a yard apart, according to the development 
of the plant selected, and the work is entirely done by hand. 
Only fresh and 1 good seed is used for planting purposes. 
The care of these crops is confined to one or two rakings com¬ 
monly done with hoes, and irrigating from time to time, taking 
care that the land is not flooded during the hottest hours of the 
day. The use of horse-rakes is gradually becoming popular, and 
when this method is generally adopted the production will be 
much more extensive, from the fact that beans grow more suc¬ 
cessfully in Chile perhaps that in any other country. 
During bad seasons beans sometimes suffer from extreme 
weather, but these are exceptional cases. The late spring frosts 
are sometimes dangerous to early crops, while continued fogs 
11 
