Page:A history of Chile.djvu/435

 CHILE OF TO-DAY 389 are grown ; this region has long been the Sicily of the southern Pacific coast. On the great farms, many of which in the vicinity of Angol have an extent of from 5,000 to 20,000 acres, the crop is grown year after year with almost unvarying success, together with smaller crops of barley, maize, beans, grass, alfalfa and pota- toes. The alfalfa is baled and shipped principally to the nitrate districts of the north. Immense quantities of it are grown in the Aconcagua valley, where the fields are irrigated from the Aconcagua river. The farms are surrounded with hedges and rows of poplars and weeping willows, while the orchards and vineyards are instarred with roses, jasmine, and innumerable wild flowers. Between the Aconcagua and Maule rivers lie the fertile lands in Chile. Throughout Chile, more particularly near the capi- tal, the grape thrives, and wine-making is an impor- tant industry. Chicha in Chile is made from grapes and is as much the popular beverage as pulque is in Mexico. Grapes were early introduced by the Span- iards and in recent years French vines have been planted in nearly all of the great vineyards from Huasco to Val- divia. Among the largest of the successful vineyards may be mentioned the Urmeneta near Valparaiso, the Ochagavia, the Totoral near Concepcion, Subercaseaux Bordeaux, Panguehue, La Trinidad and Macul. The vineyards are irrigated and cultivated in a somewhat primitive manner, oxen being used for the plowing, but there is invariably a French expert as manager and the wines made are of a very superior quality. The industry is not restricted in any manner, either in the production or the sale. From Santiago south to Concepcion the country is a succession of rich farms and occasional sandy wastes, the latter being barren simply because of a lack of means