This great central valley is parcelled out among large landowners, many of whom own almost princely estates. As agriculture has always been the chief occupation of the Chilenos, fully one-half of the population being engaged in it, these estates have been held in the same family for generations in many instances. A farm of a thousand acres is small, and there are many which number thirty or forty thousand acres. Upon the product of these broad acres the owner lives in luxury almost like the feudal lords of old. Hundreds of peons work on the _haciendas_, just as their forefathers did before them, and they really form a small army of retainers, who used to be ready to fight the battles of the _hacendado_ at a moment’s call. Now they work for them for small wages, and are always in debt. So long as they are indebted to the master they can be compelled to remain and work it out. Irrigation has been considerably developed in some parts. Each _hacendado_ is a subscriber to or shareholder in an irrigation canal. These have been constructed at a great expense and are protected by very strict laws. They consist of main canals starting well up among the hills, and are pierced by many small outlets, called _regadores_. Each of these has an outlet of a fixed number of litres per second. The fields are traversed by parallel and intersecting smaller channels, and the water is thus conducted from place to place. Movable dams of canvas stop the flow into these intersecting channels, so that the amount flowing can be regulated as the needs require. [Illustration: DRAWING AN AMERICAN THRESHER.]