Page:A history of Chile.djvu/436

 390 A HISTORY OF CHILE of irrigation, for there are here no dews and no rivers except during the winter. The soil is usually deep and fertile, and wherever water can be conducted upon it, fine crops are grown. Some of the rivers, notably the Maypo, are veritable Niles and bring down vast quantities of alluvial deposits every season. The farms are usually separated by broad ditches and are carefully tilled, although the methods are primitive. The irri- gating canals are constructed at considerable expense and each hacendado is usually a shareholder of the cor- poration stock. The canals are divided into so many outlets {regadores) and each farmer subscribes for as many as he may need of the sluices ; from them water is drawn off into the network of ditches covering his fields. It is an expensive process, but highly efficient. Farther south, around the old Araucanian cities, are the vast wheatfields which we have already noted. Here rains are abundant, and over the low undulating hills the yellow grain waves in billowy oceans. Here also range large herds of cattle. Angol is a great wheat centre ; so also is Traiguen. A railroad has been pushed down through this country to Traiguen, and is headed for Osorno, where there are extensive tracts of valuable timber. Tanning bark {lingue) is here quite an import- ant article of commerce. In Valdivia, tanneries have long been established. It has been frequentl}' recorded by travelers in these southern forests that all the trees lean toward the north. This is caused hy the prevailing south winds. From the same cause, the timber on the hills is scanty and scrubby, that in sheltered spots most luxuriant. It is a wet, windy country, but the climate is temperate, the mean temperature being about 56° Fahr. This part of Chile is being peopled almost wholl)' bj' Euro- pean immigrants, chiefly Germans, who avail them-