_Soils._--The soil in the coast valley consists of a reddish, sandy loam, which changes to a fine yellow sand, of great richness. This sand covers the hills almost everywhere in the vicinity of the Huasco river, the nature of the country being a rolling one. _Climate._--The climate is notoriously dry, and rain falls only very seldom between June and September, is of short duration and very scant. In the interior valley, rain is said to be seldom known, and the climate there can be called entirely rainless. Dew is abundant in the winter, but the summers are warm and dry. _Irrigation._--Near the coast no irrigation is required, but in the interior valley the grapes are irrigated three times a year, first when the buds begin to swell, second when they begin to blossom, and lastly when the fruit is well advanced. _The Vineyard._--The vines are planted six feet one way by eight feet the other, and the intermediate space is often planted to alfalfa, giving three crops of hay each year. The heads are kept low, the vines are pruned heavily, and only two eyes left on each cane. Sometimes whole branches are cut away, especially if they do not bear well. The vines are grown both on hillsides and in the valleys on the bottom lands. Many of the vineyards are surrounded by elevated arbors or trellises, over which the vines are trained, to keep off the heavy spring winds which otherwise would break the branches,--windbreaks, in fact. The cultivation of the Huasco vines is of the most primitive kind. The land is poorly cultivated, and the fact that alfalfa is grown between the rows of the vines indicates that the industry is not highly developed. On the other hand, it is not impossible that the crowding together of various things on the land may help to give the grapes a certain flavor or aroma. There is said to be a great difference between the various Huasco grapes, some being very superior to others. The inferior kinds are called simply Muscats, while the better kinds are the Huascos. It is not known if these varieties come from different kinds of grapes, but it is likely that this is the case. Vines of the best variety transplanted to other localities than the Huasco valley give invariably indifferent results, and produce raisins inferior to the Huasco.