Wheat is sown, but no reliance can be placed on a produce adequate to repay the farmer, although the quality in favourable seasons is very good. It often happens, that the vertical sun has great power before the grain is formed, at which time the small dew drops having arranged themselves on different parts of the ear into minute globules, these are forcibly acted on by the sun's rays before evaporation takes place, and operating as so many convex lenses, the grain is burnt, and the disappointed farmer finds nothing but a deep brown powder in its place. I have sometimes seen a field of wheat or other grain most luxuriantly green in the evening, and the day following it has been parched and dry; this transition the farmer says is the effect of frost; which will perhaps be admitted to be a correct explanation, if we consider that during the night the wind has come from the eastward, and has passed over a range of the Andes at a short distance. It sometimes also happens that the moist season continues for a long period, or that after clear weather the mists return; now should the farmer irrigate his fields during this intermission, or should the mists continue, the plants shoot up to such a great height that straw alone is harvested; but in this case, aware of the result, he often cuts the green corn for fodder, or turns his cattle on it to feed.
The growth of maize is much attended to, and very large quantities are annually consumed in Lima by the lower classes, and as food for hogs, some of which animals become extremely fat with this grain, and in less time than if fed on any other kind. Three sorts of maize are cultivated here, each of which has its peculiar properties and uses. It appears to have been in very extensive use among the indians before the arrival of the Spaniards; for, on digging the huacas, or burying grounds, at the distance of forty leagues from Lima, I have often found great quantities of it. A large deposit was discovered in square pits or cisterns, made of sun-dried bricks, on a farm called Vinto, where no doubt there had either been a public granary, or, as some people imagine, a depôt formed by Huaina Capac, on leading his troops against the Chimu, a king of the coasts, about the year 1420. The grain was quite entire when it was taken up, although, according to the above hypothesis, it had been under ground about four hundred years; owing its preservation perhaps to the dry sand in which it was buried. Its depth beneath the surface was about four feet, on the ridge of a range of sand hills, where no moisture could reach it by absorption from below, its elevation being about 700 feet above the level of the sea, and 600 above that of the nearest river. I planted some of it, but it did not grow: however its fattening qualities were not destroyed, and the neighbouring farmers and inhabitants of the adjacent villages profited by the discovery.
Large quantities of beans are harvested in this valley for the support of the slaves on the estates and plantations, but the market of Lima is principally supplied from valles, the valleys on the coast to the northward.
Although abundance of tropical and ultra-tropical fruit trees are cultivated in the gardens and orchards belonging to the farm houses, and quintas, seats, in the valley, I shall defer an account of them until I describe the gardens in and about the city.
Culinary vegetables are grown here in abundance, including a great part of those known in Europe, as well as those peculiar to warm climates. The yuca, casava, merits particular attention, on account of its prolific produce, delicate taste, and nutritious qualities; it grows to about five feet high; its leaves are divided into seven finger-like lobes of a beautiful green, and each plant will generally yield about eight roots of the size of large carrots, of a white colour, under a kind of rough barky husk. In a raw state its taste is somewhat similar to that of the chesnut, and of a very agreeable flavour when roasted or boiled; the young buds and leaves are also cooked, and are as good as spinage. It is propagated by planting the stalks or stems of the old crop, cutting them close to the ground after about four inches are buried in the mould, which must be light and rather sandy. Two species are known; the crop of the one arrives at full growth in three months, but this is not considered of so good a quality, nor is it so productive as the other, which is six months before it arrives at a state of perfection. They are distinguished by the yellowish colour of the latter, and the perfectly white colour of the former. The disadvantage attending these roots, is, that they cannot be kept above four or five days before they become very black, when they are considered unfit for use. Starch is made from them in considerable quantities, by the usual method of bruising, and subjecting them to fermentation, in order to separate the farina. The mandioc, a variety of this genus, is unknown on the western side of the Continent: thus all danger of injury from its poisonous qualities is precluded.
Several varieties of the potatoe are cultivated and yield very abundant crops. They appear to have been known in this part of the New World before it was visited by the Spaniards, and not to have been confined to Chile, their native country. I found this probability on their having a proper name in the Quichua language, whilst those plants that have been brought into the country retain among the Indians their Spanish names alone.
Camotes, commonly called sweet potatoes, and by the Spaniards batatas, are produced in great abundance, of both the yellow and purple kinds. I have seen them weighing ten pounds each; when roasted or boiled their taste is sweeter than that of the chesnut, and all classes of people eat them. They become much more farinaceous if exposed for some time to the sun after they are taken out of the ground; and if kept dry they will remain good for six months. They are propagated by setting pieces of the branches of old plants, to procure which the camote itself is sometimes planted.
Although the arracacha which is grown in this valley is neither so large nor so well tasted as that which is produced in a cooler climate, it is nevertheless an exceedingly good esculent. It is cultivated in a rich, loose soil, and has generally five or six roots, something like parsnips, but of a different flavour; they are not very mealy, and require but little cooking; they are, however, very easy of digestion, on which account they are given to the sick and convalescent; the leaves bear a great resemblance to those of celery. The plantation is either from cuttings of the root, like potatoes, or from the seed; in the first case the roots are full grown in three months, but in the latter in not less than five. If allowed to remain in the ground double the time mentioned the roots continue to increase in size, without any detriment to their taste. Starch is sometimes made from the roots, and used in the same manner as the arrow root is in other countries. Only the white arracacha is here cultivated. The arracacha deserves the attention of Europeans; it would, I am pretty certain, prosper in England, because its natural temperature, where it thrives best, is in about 60° of Fahrenheit.
The tomate, love apple, is very much cultivated, and is in frequent use both in the kitchen and for confectionary, and produces a very agreeable acid.
Capsicum, cayenne pepper, aji, is abundant; I have counted nine different sorts, the largest, rocotos, about the size of a turkey's egg, and the smallest, which is the most pungent, not thicker than the quill of a pigeon's feather; the quantity of this spice used in America is enormous; I have frequently seen a person, particularly among the indians, eat as a relish, twenty or thirty pods, with a little salt and a piece of bread. One kind called pimiento