when the completion or repair of any public work was urgent. The most cruel tax on the people consisted in the selection of the _Aclla-cuna_, or chosen maidens for the service of the Inca, and the church, or _Huaca_. This was done once a year by an ecclesiastical dignitary called the _Apu-Panaca_,[1216] or, according to one authority, the _Hatun-uilca_,[1217] who was deputy of the high-priest. Service under the Inca in all other capacities was eagerly sought for. The industry and skill of the Peruvian husbandmen can scarcely alone account for the perfection to which they brought the science of agriculture. The administrative system of the Incas must share the credit. Not a spot of cultivable land was neglected. Towns and villages were built on rocky ground. Even their dead were buried in waste places. Dry wastes were irrigated, and terraces were constructed, sometimes a hundred deep, up the sides of the mountains. The most beautiful example of this terrace cultivation may still be seen in the “Andeneria,” or hanging gardens of the valley of Vilcamayu, near Cuzco. There the terraces, commencing with broad fields at the edge of the level ground, rise to a height of 1,500 feet, narrowing as they rise, until the loftiest terraces against the perpendicular mountain side are not more than two feet wide, just room for three or four rows of maize. An irrigation canal, starting high up some narrow ravine at the snow level, is carried along the mountain side and through the terraces, flowing down from one to another. Irrigation on a larger scale was employed not only on the desert coast, but to water the pastures and arable lands in the mountains, where there is rain for several months in the year. The channels were often of considerable size and great length. Mr. Squier says that he has followed them for days together, winding amidst the projections of hills, here sustained by high masonry walls, there cut into the living rock, and in some places conducted in tunnels through sharp spurs of an obstructing mountain. An officer knew the space of time necessary for irrigating each _tupu_, and each cultivator received a flow of water in accordance with the requirements of his land. The manuring of crops was also carefully attended to.[1218] The result of all this intelligent labor was fully commensurate with the thought and skill expended. The Incas produced the finest potato crops the world has ever seen. The white maize of Cuzco has never been approached in size or in yield. Coca, now so highly prized, is a product peculiar to Inca agriculture, and its cultivation required extreme care, especially in the picking and drying processes. Ajï, or Chile pepper, furnished a new condiment to the Old World. Peruvian cotton is excelled only by Sea Island and Egyptian in length of fibre, and for strength and length of fibre combined is without an equal. Quinua, oca, aracacha, and several fruits are also peculiar to Peruvian agriculture.[1219]