Fruit and Flowers of Chile

Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.

Excerpted from Modern Chile by W. H. Koebel, 1913.

Note: This article preserves the original publication’s spelling of Chilean as the archaic “Chilian”. Modern citizens of Chile are Chileans.

The Chilian is very proud of his fruit, and, it must be confessed, with no little reason. In many Countries of South America the fruit of the temperate zones attains to a great size, but its flavour on the other hand is wont to degenerate in proportion to the increase in bulk. Chile is peculiarly fortunate in this respect its fruits not only reach a formidable size, but preserve the desired taste unimpaired.

It may be stated with certainty that nowhere in the world is the climate better adapted to fruit growing than in Chile. The new-comer might well imagine this ere he had seen a single tree or its products; but a sight of the fruit itself is sufficiently convincing on the point In the central districts the aspect of the fruit of the temperate regions is somewhat amazing. The finest specimens of pears grown here, for instance, present a picture that I have scarcely seen rivalled even in that wonderful haunt of choice fruits that flaunts its windows in Piccadilly just to the west of St James’ Street.

The proudest Chilian pear, indeed, is a yellow-gold object some six or eight inches in length and stout in proportion. This particular product is fairly ubiquitous throughout the country, since its cultivation commences well in the north of the fertile central districts, and begin only to decrease to the south of Puerto Montt, which is the southernmost point of the regularly populated area of the Republic.

The dimensions of the Chilian apple are as formidable as those of the pear. In appearance it is not quite so inviting, since its colouring contains much of that peculiar carmine shade which is characteristic of the Devon cider apple. Nevertheless the flavour is eminently satisfactory. A local industry of no small importance is the manufacture of “Chicha,” a species of cider, which is as palatable as any other.

As, of course, is only to be expected, the apple-growing districts are far more restricted than those devoted to the pear. It is only to the south of Concepcion that this fruit will consent to flourish with genuine exuberance. In these southern districts, however, the conditions are peculiarly favourable, and the quantities of the apples now grown ard not a little remarkable in themselves.

Undoubtedly, in order to obtain a really comprehensive idea of the proportions of the Chilian fruit, one should be in a position to compare them with the products of California. But, alas! I . have never visited California, and thus am unable to place these fruit of the north and of the south side by side even the territory of the mind. It is true that the very excellent products of California are much in evidence in London, where they make a brave display. But whether these are the largest and best of their species no one who has failed to visit the country itself is in a position to say.

Of course, not all the Chilian fruit attains to the size and flavour which I have now in mind, In such matters as these, although Nature consents to provide the quantity, it is left to mankind to raise the quality to its highest possible pitch. It must clearly be understood that, in writing with such an awestricken pen, I am referring only to those fruits which have had the benefits of special and intelligent cultivation.

It is unnecessary to refer to the grape here, since the vineyards of Chile are described in other places. There is one characteristic of a certain number of these vines which is deserving of mention at this juncture, since it corresponds in a sense with the great size of the fruits with which we are dealing. The Chilian grape, as a matter of fact, being a wine berry, tends to be small. But the trunks of some of the vines attain to a prodigious size. In the vineyards in the neighbourhood of Los Andes I have remarked many of these the diameter of which could not have been less than six inches.

That which has been said of the fruits applies with equal justice to die nuts. The walnuts of Chile deserve every ounce of the local fame which is theirs. Alas! it is necessary to proceed once again with the gargantuan strain, even at the risk of this theme becoming wearisome. Now these walnuts could not, with any sense of the fitness of things, be placed in the neighbourhood of an ordinary bottle of port. So much would they dwarf the wine that a man blessed—or cursed—with a genuine thirst would recoil from it in utter dismay at the seeming insignificance of its quantity.

It is, indeed, a wonderful walnut this, equalled only by its local brother the chestnut As to the acorns—well, it is the same tale once again. I have not noticed that the Chilian pigs were unusually fat. But this is their own fault, certainly not that of the acorns. Imagine a leg of mutton the size of the entire sheep, and here you have the phenomenon which the Chilian acorn must present to the pig who has been accustomed to a fare of the less corpulent seeds of the oak.

Were a typical name to be sought for the central, and southern districts of Chile the first one which would occur to the traveller would undoubtedly be Blackberry Land. Indeed, throughout all the fertile districts the development of the blackberry has attained to phenomenal proportions. The sight of this astonishing growth appeals far less to the local dweller than to the traveller. The farmer, for one, looks upon the thing as a curse, and with no little reason. It has undoubtedly robbed his fraternity of innumerable square miles of pasture. He may do all in his power to discourage its vigour; he may burn it, and cut it, but still the blackberry, perfectly undismayed, springs up with renewed vigour, and contrives to flourish with an astonishing zeal.

It is no unusual thing here to see dumps of blackberry bushes that attain to a height of twenty feet and more, endowed with a density, moreover, which is perfectly unknown in Europe. Even its bitterest enemies cannot deny that the plant has its uses. It forms for one thing an impenetrable hedge, and one may walk for many miles along blackberry lanes, entirely shaded and shut in on either hand by walls of dense green.

The fruit of this Chilian blackberry is in proportion to the luxuriance of its foliage. And this is saying much. Indeed, I do not know where else in the world these enormous bunches of berries can be rivalled. It is not necessary, as in Europe, to pick off a solitary specimen here and there. All that is needful is to stretch out a hand towards one of the countless swelling clusters and to fill it with the fruit by a single movement Twenty or thirty handfuls of the kind would fill a basket of ordinary size. Think of this, you who plod patiently along the side of the English hedges, and, plucking the berries toilfully one by one, watch for hours the slow rising of the black tide!

But if you ask the average Chilian concerning the utility of these berries you will find him profoundly uninterested. It is true, he will say, that the poorest of all the poor will take it into their heads to gather them from time to time. But why should they be interested in such things as these when grapes, pears, figs, apples, and peaches are ready to their hand for plucking ? The answer, of course, is conclusive enough. Out of a superabundance it is only the choicest which really matters. It becomes clear then why the countryman does not bother his head about the blackberry, and why the great bunches of heavy fruit die and rot on the branches.

Nevertheless, what an opportunity lies here for an enterprising jam manufacturer! Who could measure the extent of a blackberry harvest such as this? The number of hundreds of square miles occupied by the bushes is of necessity equally vague. Certainly, however, there must be thousands of tons of the fruit which every autumn burdens the thorny branches, and this in the southern districts alone, where the shrubs are by far the most abundant. Some day perhaps the time will come when they will rank among the treasured products of the world. At present they are under a cloud. They come, in fact in the same category as the New Zealand thistle, and the once detested rabbit of Australia.

As a land of flowers Chile is admirable. So far as the wild species are concerned, the number of blossoms which fleck the woods and pastures of the temperate districts in spring and autumn is amazing. But it is the cultivated specimens which I bear in mind just now. That which applies to the fruits of Chile applies also to its flowers. The land abounds not only in quantity but in quality. This fortunate state is perhaps most of all evident in the roses. It has been my fate to see roses in many quarters of the globe; but never have I seen these grown in such utter perfection as in the gardens of Chile,

The most favoured haunt of all for these particular flowers is generally held to be Viña del Mar, and, to particularise still further, one of the spots where the culture has been brought to its greatest perfection is the garden of Señor Magellanes. This gentleman happens to be an enthusiast on the subject, and he has found a field to his hand which has well repaid his ardour. Indeed, his roses are sufficiently beautiful to render breathless any one who takes a genuine interest in their growth. That they abound in tremendous profusion is nothing in itself. A mere display of that kind may be witnessed in innumerable places where the soil is favourable and the climate, is balmy. That which is most rare is that here every one of these clumps and festoons of blossom will bear the closest inspection. Of whatever species it may be, each is perfect in shape, petals, and colour. Each, in fact, when taken away from the mass of its glowing brethren, is a complete picture in itself.

It is the same whether the flowers hang from pergolas, or cling to walls, or adorn the great standard bushes with which the garden is so thickly set. There are all species here, and each would seem to have reached the zenith of its possibilities so far as they are at present known to the enthusiast I have heard much of Cashmir, and of the quality of the roses which grow within its frontiers. But if these can approach within measurable distance of the beauty of these Chilian specimens, that land must be favoured indeed.

Señor Magellanes himself has much to say on the topic of his especial hobby. According to him, so favourable to the rdse is the climate and soil of Chile, that were a professional grower to come out from Europe for the purpose of experiments in new species and hybrids, the results could not fail to be amazing. Judging by the present standard of growths there is certainly no exaggeration in this statement. At present the difficulty seems to be that the local held offers small financial inducements for any such enterprise. The number of Chilian rose-buyers is necessarily restricted. Perhaps in years to come the world in general will take an interest in an enterprise of this kind. Then it may well be that Chile will become a centre of rose culture which might confidently compete with those of any other continent.

Not a few of the leading Chilians, it may be said, have devoted themselves to market gardening, in the majority of cases rather as an example to be held up before their less fortunate brethren of what the land, scientifically treated, is capable than from the desire to add to their already plentiful incomes. Undoubtedly one of the most prominent of these gentlemen is Señor Izquierdo, whose establishment in the neighbourhood of Santiago is practically unrivalled throughout the Republic

In such cases as these, as I have said, the procedure is largely experimental, worked from patriotic motives as it is. There is no doubt, however, that from the purely commercial point of view the profession of market gardener in the neighbourhood of such towns as Santiago, Valparaiso, and Concepcion is an extremely profitable one, since the industry is not yet overcrowded, the generosity of the earth phenomenal, and the prices obtained rather out of proportion to the facility with which the produce is raised. To the vegetarian Chile represents the highest paradise on earth.

Among the youngsters one of the most popular growths. In Chile is the Palma Chilena—the Chilian Palm—a handsome and lofty specimen of its tribe. It produces large bunches of a species of nut with a green exterior, somewhat similar in shape to an exaggerated filbert, although its outer covering is soft. When this is cut away a hard shell is revealed, exactly resembling a miniature coco-nut. In flavour, moreover, the kernel is almost identical with this

latter.

Among the schoolboy tribe the Palma Chilena is popular to a degree. Seeing that the shell is peculiarly hard, its efficient manipulation affords a severe tax on his ingenuity. Indeed, it is worth while to follow the procedure of one of these youngsters laden with one of the weighty green

branches, more especially in a railway carriage where stones and other such instruments especially created for the breaking of nuts are non-existent. In this lamentable situation a reliable substitute is to be met with in the nearest window-frame, which must be brought down with no little force on the hard shell. There is no doubt that the conscientious crushing of nuts is responsible for not a few shattered railway window panes. But what would you have, since it is necessary to extract the kernel? Provided the end is achieved, the fate of the instrument must always remain a matter of detail to the genuine schoolboy. Besides, the railways and the glass belong to the State, the natural protector of youth.

Koebel, William Henry. Modern Chile. G. Bell & Sons, 1913.

W. H. Koebel