AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION ON THE COAST
[Illustration: PICTURESQUE GARDEN ON A RICE PLANTATION.]
The increasing importance of Peru’s seaport trade is largely due to the
prosperous development of agriculture, which is annually becoming a more
valuable source of revenue to the country. Nearly all the steamers that
visit Callao call also at other Peruvian ports, the coast being dotted
from Tumbes to Arica with flourishing harbors, in which may be seen
trading vessels of all nations. From the valleys of the coast region are
shipped immense quantities of sugar and important cargoes of the famous
Peruvian cotton, grown exclusively in this country, besides tobacco,
rice, coffee, and a variety of fruits. Agriculture is the chief
occupation of the people in this part of Peru, and the employment of
modern methods in its development is leading to wonderful results.
The conditions that govern agriculture on the Peruvian coast are similar
to those of the Nile valley, as regards the nature of the soil, climate,
and fertilization. Wherever a stream crosses the sandy strip between the
Cordilleras and the sea, the valley along its course is made richly
productive, and yields abundant harvests. Every effort is being put
forth by the government to increase the irrigable territory by
distributing the water of the rivers to the best advantage and by
sinking artesian wells wherever practicable. The special code which
governs irrigation on the coast has recently been reformed so as to
admit of a more general utilization of the water supply from the rivers;
and experienced hydraulic engineers from the Geological Survey
Department of Washington, District of Columbia, have been engaged to
study the geology of the coast, the courses of its streams, its
subterranean waters, etc., in order that, from correct knowledge, the
best means may be employed to utilize its moisture so as to benefit the
greatest possible area.
[Illustration: IRRIGATING CANAL ON A PIURA PLANTATION.]
At present, not more than two million acres of coast lands are planted,
out of a cultivable territory of fifty million acres, showing that the
farming industry is still in the infancy of its development. But the
harvests actually secured, with comparatively little effort and expense,
are in some cases phenomenal, and always abundant. When once the entire
area is brought under the plough, Peru will have in its coast farms
greater wealth than its mines have ever yielded. Not only through want
of irrigation is the productive area much less than it would otherwise
be, but the lack of laborers to cultivate the land is a serious
drawback. Some of the large haciendas contain extensive fields of
fertile soil that remain untilled because the owners have not sufficient
capital, or a large enough staff of workmen to undertake their
development.
[Illustration: LOADING SUGAR-CANE, SANTA BARBARA PLANTATION, CAÑETE.]
But, in compensation for its difficulties, agriculture has many
advantages on the coast of Peru. No sudden changes of temperature occur
to alarm the planter, there are no destructive storms, and the fear of
drought does not exist, because the system of artificial irrigation
permits of the fields being watered or left dry at the owner’s
discretion. Sugar, the chief product of the coast country, is cultivated
all the year round, the cutting of cane taking place without
interruption on the great plantations that stretch along its valleys.
Tumbes, Piura, Lambayeque, La Libertad, Ancash, Lima, Ica, Arequipa, and
Tacna have extensive sugar plantations, though from Ica southward,
little is exported. The chief sugar-growing districts of the southern
coast region are Cañete, in the Department of Lima, and Chincha, in the
Department of Ica. From their seaports, Cerro Azul and Tambo de Mora,
large cargoes are shipped to foreign countries, as well as from the port
of Pisco, at which all the ocean steamers and sailing vessels of the
west coast call to receive and discharge merchandise. The large sugar
estates of Cañete and Chincha are conducted according to modern methods,
those of the British Sugar Company and the haciendas of San José and
Larán being the most important in extent and production. The great
centre of the sugar industry in Peru is the Chicama valley, in the
Department of La Libertad, where the average production reaches four
tons to the acre, a larger return than is secured in any other
sugar-growing country. The total quantity of sugar produced annually in
Peru amounts to about two hundred thousand tons, of which the greater
part is grown on the coast, more than a hundred and fifty thousand tons
being exported. It is estimated that the value of the year’s harvest
averages between eight and nine million dollars. In nearly all the coast
districts, flourishing cotton plantations may be seen, though the
valleys of Piura are most celebrated for the successful raising of this
product, which occupies the second place among the agricultural exports
of Peru, the annual shipments amounting to twenty thousand tons, with a
prospect of rapid increase, owing to the added extent of territory
annually placed under cultivation. In the valleys of Huacho and Supe, in
the Department of Lima, the famous “Sea Island” cotton is grown, and all
the coast states produce the “Egyptian” and “Mitafifi” varieties.
Peruvian cotton is exported only from Piura and Ica.
[Illustration: PIER AND WAREHOUSES OF THE BRITISH SUGAR COMPANY,
LIMITED, AT CERRO AZUL.]
In the northern coast region, notably in Lambayeque and in the province
of Pacasmayo, in La Libertad, the culture of rice receives especial
attention, with the most satisfactory results. Modern methods are
employed by the planters of this zone to increase the production, which
now averages two hundred and fifty thousand bags (one hundred and ninety
pounds each) annually. The rice of Peru is equal to the best grown in
other parts of the world. Two varieties are cultivated, the “Carolina”
and the “Jamaica,” the former being more prolific, though the “Jamaica”
gives a whiter grain and is more easily hulled. In good years, the
harvest amounts to fifteen bags to the acre, and the cost of production,
from the planting of the seed to the harvesting and threshing of the
grain, is about eight dollars, gold, per acre. The value of the rice
crop varies greatly, but the present average is not less than half a
million pounds sterling.
[Illustration: FERREÑAFE, A FLOURISHING CENTRE OF THE RICE INDUSTRY.]
In the Peruvian rice fields, the harvesting begins five months after
planting; the rice is then gathered and sent to the mill to be hulled,
the larger estates having their own rice mills, provided with all the
latest improvements. The Chiclayo valley, the chief centre of the
rice-growing region, is fertilized by the Chancay, Saña and Leche
Rivers, and their tributaries. From the Chancay River, at a point called
Puntilla, an irrigating canal, the Taimy, crosses the valley, watering
the estates in the district of Ferreñafe, which is in the heart of the
rice country. From the seaport of Eten, a railway extends inland for
fifty miles, passing the principal towns, rice fields and sugar
plantations of the department. It is a standard gauge line, and the cars
are of modern construction. The port of Eten is interesting chiefly as
the gateway to the rich country behind it, though the town itself is
constantly growing and improving. The most conspicuous feature of the
port, as seen from an incoming steamer, is its long pier, which extends
two thousand seven hundred feet out into the sea, and is provided with
steam winches having capacity for disposing of seven hundred tons of
cargo daily. Similar piers have been built at Pacasmayo, Salaverry,
Pisco, and other ports. The railway from Eten, after leaving the port
and passing Monsefu and Chiclayo,—the latter the capital of
Lambayeque,—traverses the beautiful valleys where the rice fields
stretch out like a green carpet along the banks of the river. Great
haciendas, of extensive acreage, speak volumes in praise of the
enterprise and energy of the proprietors, in a region less than seven
degrees from the equator and almost at sea level. Pomalca, Combo, Tuman,
Patapo, and other important plantations, are provided with American
agricultural implements and have the latest machinery of all kinds in
their fields and rice mills. Sugar is also grown in these valleys, the
annual harvest amounting to twenty-five thousand tons.
[Illustration: A HOLIDAY IN CHICLAYO.]
Although La Libertad is called the “Sugar State” of Peru, Piura its
“Cotton Belt,” and Lambayeque the rice-growing centre, yet all these
products are cultivated also in the fertile valleys of Ancash, which is
one of the richest and most promising departments of the republic,
comprising, within its twenty thousand square miles, the regions both of
the coast and the sierra. It has excellent harbors, abundance of
irrigation, a great variety of resources and a healthful climate. The
sugar farms and rice fields of Ancash are chiefly located in the
northern part of the state, in the beautiful valley of the Santa River,
and in the region of Samanco and Casma. All this territory is
particularly adapted to agriculture and is destined to be one of the
richest centres of Peruvian industry. The magnificent bay of Chimbote,
covering a surface of thirty-six square miles, affords shelter for the
largest ships and is one of the best harbors on the west coast of South
America; it is free from sandbanks and hidden rocks, and never gets the
rough seas that sometimes break over the shores of other ports along the
coast of Peru. Before the war with Chile, a railway was under
construction to connect the port with the capital, Huaraz, and half the
road was completed when the war broke out. All the workshops and
factories were destroyed by the invading troops, who set fire to the
fields of sugar-cane and blew up the farm houses with dynamite. This
catastrophe paralyzed the progress of the valley for some years, but,
under renewed enterprise, the outlook is very bright for future
prosperity. The railway is being built again and will soon be completed
to the capital of the department, thus affording facilities of
transportation for the products of the sierra as well as those of the
valleys. Abundant water-power is available for engineering and other
enterprises.
[Illustration: WORKMEN ON A COAST PLANTATION.]
[Illustration: STREET AND OLD CHURCH OF LAMBAYEQUE.]
None of the agricultural products above named are confined to the coast
region. In the lower inter-Andean valleys and on the higher levels of
the Montaña sugar, cotton, and rice are successfully grown, though not
as the chief industry, except in the case of sugar, which is a staple
product of all the interior valleys. Tobacco thrives better in the
interior than on the coast, though the province of Tumbes produces some
of the best tobacco of South America. Maize is cultivated in every
department, and in every region except on the high _puna_. It may be
seen growing on the plantations of the coast, in the inter-Andean
valleys, and in the Montaña, and furnishes the Indian’s chief article of
food and drink; the native _chicha_, once the favorite beverage of the
Incas, is made from this product. Maize is to the Peruvian Indian what
rice is to the Oriental, the foundation of his _cuisine_. The history of
its discovery is interesting. It is said that, when Christopher Columbus
landed on the Island of San Salvador in the Bahamas, in 1492, he and his
followers were surprised to find that the natives prepared a most
palatable food from a plant that was quite unknown to the conquerors and
had never been seen in Europe. The natives called it _mahiz_, which the
Spaniards corrupted into _maiz_ (pronounced like the English word
“mice”), and it has ever since retained this name, having become one of
the principal agricultural products of the world. The valley of Chancay
is famous for its maize, the production of this district alone amounting
to about ten thousand tons annually; though Cuzco enjoys the reputation
of growing the largest maize in the world, with grains the size of a
large bean. Peruvian maize won a gold medal at the St. Louis Exposition
in 1906, and was the subject of great interest among agriculturists.
[Illustration: PATAPO, DEPARTMENT OF LAMBAYEQUE.]
Agriculture is awakening greater interest than ever before in Peru. The
government, through the Department of Fomento, is doing everything
possible to encourage its development; the National School of
Agriculture and veterinary science has been most successful as a means
of providing practical instruction in this important branch of
education. The school was founded in 1902, the first pupils being
graduated in 1906. Many young Peruvians have studied agriculture in the
United States and Europe, and, on returning home, have put in practice
on their haciendas the knowledge thus gained. A few have become teachers
in the National School of Agriculture, which is accomplishing a great
work for the future of Peruvian industries. The Department of Fomento
distributes, free of cost, to the agricultural community a great
quantity and variety of illustrative literature respecting modern
methods of cultivation, irrigation, and fertilization of lands, with
suggestions as to the best kinds of products to be fostered in certain
regions; a bulletin appears monthly, filled with useful information, and
the school of agriculture publishes a newspaper along the same lines.
The government also imports seeds and special plants from other
countries and lends its aid to the planter in exterminating any diseases
that may appear on his lands.
[Illustration: HUARAZ, CAPITAL OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ANCASH.]
The laws of Peru authorize the government to grant concessions of waters
and lands on liberal conditions, which are attracting agriculturists
from less favored zones. Companies have been formed with the object of
securing irrigation on lands hitherto not within the cultivable area,
and the system of irrigation has been increased in various sections. In
the Department of Piura, the irrigating canals on the Chira and Piura
Rivers have greatly enhanced the value of lands in that section; and
similar results have followed the work done in Lambayeque and in the
Chicama valley. The effort on the part of the government to place the
coast lands under irrigation is not of recent date, the records showing
that measures were adopted to promote enterprises with this object in
view as early as 1861, when authority was given, by a supreme decree,
“to sink artesian wells for irrigation and domestic uses in Paita and
Piura.” During the presidency of Don Manuel Pardo, especial attention
was given to the problem of irrigation, and agriculture was developing
under the most auspicious circumstances when interrupted by the war of
1879. As soon as peace was restored and the country resumed its normal
tranquillity, the importance of irrigation again occupied the public
mind, and from that time to the present,—though notably during the
administration of Don José Pardo,—improvements have continued to be made
and new experiments studied for the benefit of the agriculture of the
coast by a more thorough and general irrigation of its territory.
Another question besides irrigation is now occupying the attention of
agriculturists. Heretofore, the wonderful fertility of the soil has been
perpetuated by allowing fields to lie fallow for a season, whenever
their productiveness threatened to decline. This system is giving place
to the more scientific method of fertilizing the land by the use of
guano and other substances suitable for the purpose, and no country is
better provided than Peru with the best fertilizing products of the
world. The islands from which this valuable food for the soil is
obtained are all within easy sailing distance of the coast, and their
supply is sufficient for the needs of the country for an indefinite
period.
[Illustration: PORT OF PACASMAYO.]
[Illustration: THE CHICAMA RIVER, DEPARTMENT OF LA LIBERTAD.]