The transition of Land Owners No. 3, from what is recognized as the
inferior classes, to respectable citizens is generally due to the
accumulation of property. Wealth constitutes recognized citizenship,
and when obtained, they think that the right of sovereignty is theirs
in the fullest degree. This transition often carries with it the idea
that all law and government should be administered by them. Fortunately
their inexperience and lack of education seldom permits them to
rule higher than municipal legislation, or perhaps sub-delegate of
a district. The phlegmatic temperament of this class of Chilenos is
universal. If emotions ever stir the depths of their souls they manage
to conceal the fact by an apparent calm composure.
Most of them are illiterate, but to their credit they have in recent
years been endeavoring to secure for their children better education
than that afforded them. The educational facilities of the country
are not good, but the majority of the children of this class of
farmers secure sufficient technical training in the schools to suffice
for their simple lives. They are orderly, hard working people, and
generally honest, as they interpret the meaning of the term. The
Chilean characteristic of sticking tenaciously to custom and tradition
is exemplified in the home life of these people. Their condition is
little better or above that of Land Owners No. 1 and 2. From choice,
rather than necessity, they follow the custom of their Indian ancestors
by sitting upon the ground, a stone or a billet of wood; the food
for the family is served from one dish, there being as many spoons as
persons to be served. The materials which enter into the composition of
the food of these farmer folk consisting of wheat, corn, beans, fruit,
pepper, etc., are ground between stones. In fact the grinding stones
are the most useful utensils in the equipment of the kitchen. They
consist of one large flat stone with a smooth surface, and a smaller
one, oval shaped. The material is placed upon the large stone, and the
other in the hand of the operator is used to crush and grind the grain
or dried vegetables to the proper consistency. This work is always done
by the women. In the kitchen may be found a few pots, clay dishes, tin
cups, wooden spoons and quantities of dirt. Occupying the kitchen, and
apparently upon the most intimate terms with members of the family are
pigs, goats, dogs, and chickens. If there are guests in the house, food
is served in the dining room with some show of formality, but when the
family is alone, the food is served in one dish from which the members
help themselves with spoons until the supply is exhausted. It is then
refilled with some other kind of food and the meal continues until
all are satisfied. With a change of food the same dish and spoons are
used without being washed. Tea and coffee are sometimes served when
strangers are present, but when the family is alone, mate only is
served as a drink, with their meals. The mate cup is filled and passed
to the head of the house who drinks the contents through a “bombilla.”
The cup is filled again and again, each member of the family drinking
out of the same vessel and through the same bombilla. When there are
no guests in the house the servants sometimes form part of the family
group, eating out of the same pot, and having their turn at the mate
through the family bombilla.
The tile-roofed adobe houses inhabited by this class of farmers are
very plain. They are devoid of ornamentation within or without, and
there is seldom a tree or shrub to relieve the dreary monotony of the
surroundings. There are no windows in these places of abode, and the
floor is either dirt or common brick. The furniture consists of beds,
one or two home-made tables, and a few chairs of the commonest kind.
If a person of the better class visits the home of one of these Chilean
farmers, he must do most of the talking, and it will be necessary to
limit the conversation to subjects pertaining to the church, crops,
animals, gossip, or questions relating to their districts. They know
little of the great world lying beyond the narrow horizon of their
local environments. The methods employed by this class of farmers in
cultivating the soil are crude and primitive. The wooden plow used by
the Spaniards and Greeks a thousand years ago, furnishes the model for
the implement used by these people in this twentieth century. It is
made by mortising one piece of a small tree trunk into another, at an
angle of about forty-five degrees. A piece of iron is usually fastened
over the point of the portion that is intended to stir the ground.
Oxen, attached by a wooden yoke fastened to their horns with rawhide
thongs, are employed in drawing the plows. A stick serves as a handle,
and holding on to the crude implement with one hand, the other used in
directing the oxen, the plowman manages to scratch the ground, but is
never able to stir the soil to any depth. When the plowing is done and
the grain planted or sown, some branches of trees serve as a drag for
covering it. Forks for handling grain and hay are made from branches of
trees.
The grain is harvested with reap hooks, and the threshing is done
with animals. The wheat or barley is placed upon the ground within a
circular enclosure. A number of animals, usually young mares from the
farm, are turned into the enclosure, and one or more men mounted upon
strong horses, follow them around, shouting, whipping and pursuing
them over the grain until the tramping of hoofs has crushed the grain
from the straw. Then comes the process of separating the chaff from
the grain. This, as are all other methods employed in cultivating and
preparing products of the farm for market, is curious and primitive.
The wheat and chaff are placed in baskets, which men hold in their
hands above their heads allowing the contents to empty slowly. As it
falls the chaff and refuse are carried to one side by the wind, leaving
the grain, which is heavier and which falls directly to the ground,
clean and ready for the market.
Nearly all the land occupied and cultivated by this class of farmers
is what is known as “campo de rulo” (dry hill land), which constitutes
the greater part of agricultural Chile. The only moisture it has is
from the three or four months’ rainfall from June to October. For about
half the year these hill lands are brown, sear and desolate looking,
but in the autumn, winter and spring, they are covered with a mantle
of rich verdure, presenting a landscape scene that is attractive and
prepossessing. During the rainy season the mud is deep, roads are
often impassable, bridges are carried away by the swift current of the
streams and there is little communication between different communities
or between country and city.
The theory of these hill farmers is to get as much out of the soil as
possible, without expense. The land is never fertilized, and crops
are grown alternate years. The plowing is done after the rains set in
in the autumn, and the soil being clay, remains very hard and lumpy.
This plowed land, called “barbecho,” is left over the winter, the
rains having the effect of pulverizing and putting it in condition
for the sowing or planting for the next season. Oxen are used for
plowing, and it is a novel sight to see a large number of those slow,
plodding beasts winding about the hills dragging the crude plows.
Fifty yoke of oxen are often engaged in plowing on one hacienda. This
method of cultivating is employed until the soil becomes so worn that
it will not produce a satisfactory crop. It is then let stand for
several years until nature rejuvenates it, and it is again put into
service. The grain is harvested by hand, and brought from the hills
in primitive wooden carts, or upon the heads of peons. The general
appearance of the soil would indicate that this hill land is valueless
for agricultural purposes, but it produces annually a large per cent.
of the agricultural products of the country, besides maintaining many
horses, cattle and sheep.
The farmers of this class live in a narrow world. The majority of them
have never been out of the province in which they were born and many
of them never saw a railway train; they know the villages in their
vicinity, and perhaps the provincial capital, but one who has seen
Santiago, the national capital, is the rare exception. The customs
prevailing in other countries, or what is going on in the great world,
are of little consequence to them; they are interested only in what
they are doing. Even if one can read, he seldom subscribes for a
newspaper, as that is considered a useless expenditure.
The men engage only in the larger affairs of the business of the
family, such as marketing the animals and the grain raised on the farm.
The small trade in chicha, liquors, poultry, etc., is attended to by
the women. In nearly every house is kept a supply of such articles as
may be required by the peons. In the sale of these, the money that is
paid out by the farmer, in wages, comes back in small amounts, and
with interest. The profit made on this small mercantile business, in
the sale of sugar, mate, chicha, etc., pays for the articles of the
same class consumed by the farmer’s family. In these transactions they
never refuse credit to anyone, but politely say they have not the
article called for, notwithstanding the fact that it may be in plain
view of the would-be purchaser, or sold to another before his eyes.
They understand each other and their method of dealing with delinquent
customers furnishes an example that might be emulated with profit by
more progressive and up-to-date tradesmen.
These farmers are received at the haciendas, not exactly as equals, but
because of a money consideration. They have land, stock, and usually
money in the bank. Notwithstanding the fact that many of them have
a competency, they resort to a method of economy that is absolute
penuriousness,--stinginess personified. They never visit their friends,
or entertain their neighbors. They never keep a coach, for two reasons,
one being that where they reside, and places to where they journey,
there are no coach roads, and for the more general reason that they
never spend money for such an unnecessary luxury. The men always ride
horseback, and when the women go away from home, which is seldom, they
also travel on horseback. Few of them possess sidesaddles, and the
common custom is for them to go “en anca,” sitting upon a cloth spread
upon the back of the horse, behind the saddle occupied by the man.
There is still another class of dry land, hill farmers, who own large
tracts of land, and farm upon a large scale. In sandy or loam soil
they employ modern machinery and implements. This class often becomes
rich, in which case they invariably move to the provincial cities and
work their estates through an “administrador.” These hill farmers are
autocrats in their respective communities; not in the same despotic
manner as the owners of the large irrigated estates, for the inquilinos
and peons of the hills are more independent, are treated with greater
consideration, and are more nearly on an equality than is the case on
the great hacienda.