Education.— In many parts of Chile educa tion scarcely touches the common people; but, so far as the upper and middle classes are con cerned, the educational system is fairly well developed. Elementary education is free but not compulsory; and although there are schools of some kind in all towns, 75 or 80 per cent of the population as a whole must be called illit erate. The University of Chile in its various departments (including law, engineering, medi cine, philosophy and the fine arts) has an attendance of 1,300. Other public educational institutions are the National Institute, with 1,200 pupils; Institute of Pedagogy; about 30 lyceums of secondary instruction for men; and 15 lyceums for girls; 6 normal schools; a con servatory of music; a commercial institute; also schools of fine arts, agriculture, arts and trades, for the blind and for deaf-mutes, pro fessional schools for girls and industrial schools. Private educational establishments are numer ous and receive pupils from other Latin American countries. The Roman Catholic Uni versity has courses of engineering and law. There are several museums of natural history and fine arts; an astronomical observatory and meteorological observatories; botanical gar dens and, in various parts of the country, 41 public libraries, with 240,000 volumes. At Copiap6, La Serena and Santiago there arc mining schools; and agricultural schools at Chillan, Concepcion, Ancud and other cities. In 1916 the Chilean legislature voted to es tablish a school of mining at Antofagasta ow ing to the importance which that province has assumed in the exploitation of the mineral wealth of the nation; and with a view to train ing native engineers and to encourage the ex tensive study of the mineral resources of Antofagasta and promoting their exploitation. Exceedingly interesting are the statistics relat ing to instruction in Magallanes Territory, for it is shown that 77.77 per cent of all inhabitants of that territory, above the age of six years, can read and write; 1.89 per cent can read but cannot write; and only 20.33 per cent are en tirely unlettered. But the percentage of illiteracy in Chile as a whole is, as we have just said, nearly four times greater. Comparing the Chilean population of Magallanes Territory with the foreign element, the former shows 25.51 per cent of illiteracy as against 13.23 per cent for the latter. A still more favorable result is obtained if we scrutinize the reports of primary and secondary schools in that ter ritory. It appears that more than 83 per cent of all children of school age there can read and write, while less than 17 per cent must be classed provisionally among illiterates. The Report of the Commissioner of Education for the year ended 30 June 1915 (Washington 1915) contains the statement: ((The budget passed by the Chilean Congress (for the year 1915-16), carries $122,450 (United States currency) for public instruction. This is less than 1 per cent of the entire budget and represents a mere fraction of the public expenditure for educa tion, which is supplied mainly by the provincial governments?' According to the latest annual of the Chilean bureau of statistics there were 3,131 public and 506 private priniary schools in Chile at the close of the year 1913, with 318,000 and 61,000 pupils respectively; 16 public and 2 private normal schools with 2,650 and 225 pupils respectively; 86 public and 120 private second ary schools with 25,500 and 17,400 pupils re spectively; 11 public • and 10 private commercial schools, 3,660 and 1,690 pupils respectively; special schools of the army numbered 6 and there were 7 special schools of the navy. The cost of maintaining the public primary schools in 1915 was $2,945,310.
It is proper to note under this heading that the Spanish language, as written and spoken in Chile, differs from the standard Castilian in many respects. For example, the initial g in such words as general is changed to j. Com
pare in the bibliography the titles 'Historic Jeneral,> (Censo Jeneral.> Agricultural and Pastoral Industries.— The extent of lands capable of being utilized for agriculture is estimated at somewhat more than 14000 square miles; but one-half of this is covered by forests and woods, a little more than one-eighth is properly paiture-land, and one-tenth irrigated areas or can readily enough be made productive by irrigation. About one eighth of the total area of Chile may be classed as plains not requiring irrigation, and the soil has been built up by silt brought down in the flooding mountain streams. The main crops are wheat,. maize,. barley, potatoes, rye, oats and forage plants. In the irrigated valleys of the north—in Tacna, Tarapack Atacama and Coquimbo—maize, gives two crops annually. Other products are grapes, many of the sub tropical fruits, tobacco, sugar-beets, honey and hemp. Vineyards exist from the northern ex tremity to Llanquihue. In the north, from Tacna to Aconcagua, the slopes of the irrigated valleys are clothed with the luxuriant green of the vines. And in these irrigated valleys, from Atacama to Chile's northern boundary, there are generous crops of figs, pomegranates and olives. Some of the Chilean tropical fruits are exceptionallyfine. There is an immense grazing area in Magallanes Territory, near the Straits of Magellan; and sheep and cattle thrive in that part of the country. The horses bred in the central zones are short-bodied but powerful animals. Many conditions favoring agricultural development are present; but other conditions are very unfavorable. Nearly . all the agricultural land of the Central or Longitu dinal Valley, from Cautin up to Aconcagua, in the provinces of Valdivia and Llanquihue on the south and Coquimbo on the north, is in the hands of wealthy families of Spanish descent or others who have been "ab sorbed into the local oligarchy?' "Although the law provides that land shall be divided up into equal shares among all children, a kind of patriarchal system prevails; and although a mansion or hacienda may shelter a group of the agricultural estates themselves are not split up. Consequently in these central provinces large estates are the rule?' There is little modern enterprise; antiquated agricultural methods are still favored; leisurely and waste ful ways persist. Life on the haciendas is often very pleasant. Many of the houses are large, well built, delightfully equipped and money is plentiful. In the irrigated valleys of the north also much of the land is held by the ruling classes. There remain districts not yet absorbed for development, but the chief draw backs of these are isolation, lack of transporta tion facilities and labor.
In 1913-14 the principal crops, with their acreage and production, were as follows: Wheat 1,018,382 acres, 8,787,852 cwts.; barley, 152,625 acres, 2,386,157 cwts.; oats, 121,615 acres, 1,267, 815 cwts.; maize, 58,609 acres, 752,791 cwts.; beans, 76,188 acres, 737,626 cwts.; potatoes, 81, 299 acres, 197,338 tons; vines, 162,902 acres, 45,981,056 gallons of wine. On 31 Dec. 1913 the live stock of Chile comprised 457,845 horses, 38,193 mules, 1,968,620 oxen, 4,602,317 sheep and 221,384 pigs. Dairy farms and the pro duction of butter and cheese are on the in crease. In Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego large tracts of country are devoted to sheep farming.
The total wool production of Chile.in 1916 was.20,000,000 pounds, more than twice that of Peru, the other great wool growing country of South America on the Pacific coast. As Chile does not export agricultural products to any great extent, the European War did not have a marked effect on the agricultural situation. In the latter part of 1914 the closing of the nitrate fields deprived the farmers in the south tempo rarily of a good market for their products, but a full and complete recovery was soon effected.