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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.