THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC

First published in English in 1922

(All rights reserved)

INTRODUCTION

In the following chapters I have endeavoured to indicate the essential aspects of colonization in modern Argentina: the conquest of the soil by man, the exploitation of its natural resources, the development of agriculture and cattle-breeding, and the growth of the population and enlargement of the urban centres.

For a new country like Argentina it is not convenient to adopt the strictly regional plan which seems to be the best means of giving a complete and methodical description of the historic countries of western Europe, where it is the only way to keep in close touch with the geographical facts. In western Europe each region is really an independent unity. It has for ages lived upon its own resources; each population-group has its horizon definitely limited; and the complex action of the environment upon man, and of man upon the country, has proceeded in each district rather on the lines of an isolated and impassioned dialogue between the two. It is quite different in Argentina. There, many of the facts which we have to record consist in an expansion of the population, a spread of methods of exploitation from zone to zone of the country, and the influence upon colonization of commerce and of the varying needs of the markets of the world.

It may be well to reply in advance to a criticism which my Argentine friends are sure to make. They will complain that I have paid no attention to the people of Argentina, the creators of the greatness of the country. It is true that I have deliberately refrained from any reference to the political and moral life of the Republic, the national character and its evolution, the stoicism of the gaucho, the industry of the colonist and the merchant, or the patriotism of the Argentinians generally. My work is not a study of the Argentine nation, but a geographical introduction to such a study.

I began the work during a stay in Argentina which lasted from April 1912 to August 1914. In the course of these two years I was able to visit most parts of the country; and, as the information I gathered during my travels is one of my chief sources, I give here a summary of my itineraries.

My knowledge of the publications on Argentina has two conspicuous gaps. The first is deliberate. I declined to study at second hand the documents and chronicles which are our sources, to the end of the eighteenth century, for the history of the various provinces that were to form Argentina. Hence the historical data on colonization which will be found in the following chapters relate almost entirely to the nineteenth century.

The second gap I was, to my great disappointment, unable to fill up. A large part of the local publications—official or other—maps, statistics, etc., never reached Europe, and Buenos Aires is the only place where one can make a thorough study of them. These publications were available to me until 1914. Since then I have been restricted to the resources of the Paris and London libraries, which are very scanty; and less has been sent from Argentina since the war. I have not the complete statistics up to date.

I trust, however, that this picture of Argentina has much more than a retrospective character; that it is not out of date before it is published. I may add that no statistics would enable one to solve the problem which Argentina in 1920 presents to an observer. Has the European War merely retarded the economic evolution of the country, or has it given that evolution a new direction? Will or will not the relations which Argentina is now resuming with the rest of the world be of the same character as the pre-war relations?

The effects of the war upon the life of the country must not all be put on the same footing. That some of the exporters to Argentina have gained by the war and others lost—that the share of the United States, and even of Japan, has greatly increased—is a fact that may be regarded from the Argentinian point of view as of secondary importance. The war has, moreover, had the effect of disorganizing marine transport and bringing about a sort of relative isolation which is not yet quite over. The reduction in the imports of English coal has made the petroleum wells of Rivadavia of greater value to the country. It has compelled the Argentinians to make a hurried inventory of their natural resources in the way of fuel. Local industries have tried to meet the needs of the Argentinian market, where they had no longer to bear the competition of European goods. The grave disturbance of prices has enabled them to export certain products which had hitherto been confined to home markets. The war has, moreover, not interfered with the existing streams of export on a large scale from Argentina. The Republic continues to send its cereals, meat, hides and wool to Europe; and there is no reason to suppose that the competition of buyers is likely to diminish, or that the cultivation of wheat and lucerne must become less profitable.

The two essential effects of the war seem to have been the stopping of the stream of immigration and the progressive reduction of the support which Europe gave to the work of colonization in the form of advances of capital.

From 1914 to 1918 only 272,000 immigrants landed at Buenos Aires, while 482,000 emigrants left the country. In 1918 the figure of immigration and emigration was only 47,000, less than a tenth of what it was in a normal year before the war. The withdrawal of European capital was felt from the very beginning of the war, and it has gone on uninterruptedly, capital from North America not being enough to supply the deficiency entirely. At the same time the extraordinarily favourable balance of trade has led to the storing of an ample reserve of capital in the country. Argentina has, in a very short time, won a financial independence which, in normal conditions, would have entailed long years of work and prosperity.

However it may seem, these two facts—the interruption of immigration and the accumulation of capital—cannot be considered independently of each other. The inquiry opened by the Social Museum of Argentina (La immigracióninmigración despues después de la guerra, Museo Social Argentino, "Bol. Mensual," viii, 1919, nos. 85-90) show that a speedy restoration of immigration is expected in the Republic. Certainly it seems clear that the political and social insecurity in Europe, the misery of the old world, will probably enhance the attractions of Argentina. We must remember, however, that the stream of emigration from Europe to the Republic in the nineteenth, and the beginning of the twentieth, century was provoked by a complex combination of economic conditions which were closely related to each other. High wages in Argentina were connected with the high interest on money; that is to say, in other words, with the scarcity of capital. The future will decide whether immigration, and the rapid progress of colonization and production, which characterize pre-war Argentina can be adjusted to the policy of accumulation of capital to which the war has condemned the country.

CONTENTS

• INTRODUCTION
• ILLUSTRATIONS
• MAPS
• CHAPTER I
  THE NATURAL REGIONS OF ARGENTINA

  The physical environment—Colonization and the natural regions—The struggle with the Indians—Argentine unity—Argentina and the world.

• CHAPTER II
  THE OASES OF THE NORTH-WEST

  The inhabited zones of the Andes in the north-west—Valles, Quebradas, Puna—The irrigation of the valles—The historic routes—Convoys of stock—The breeding of mules and the fairs—The struggle of the breeders against drought—The Sierra de los Llanos.

• CHAPTER III
  TUCUMÁN AND MENDOZA

  Tucumán and the road to Chile—The climate and the cultivation of the sugar-cane—The problem of manual labour—Irrigation at Mendoza—Water-rights—Viticulture—Protection and the natural conditions.

• CHAPTER IV
  THE EXPLOITATION OF THE FORESTS

  Manual labour on the obrajes—The land of the bañados and the agricultural cantons of Corrientes—The timber-yards of the Chaco and the tannic-acid works of the Paraná—The exploitation of the maté—The forestry industry and colonization.

• CHAPTER V
  PATAGONIA AND SHEEP-REARING

  The arid tableland and the region of glacial lakes—The first settlements on the Patagonian coast and the indigenous population—Extensive breeding—The use of pasture on the lands of the Rio Negro—Transhumation.

• CHAPTER VI
  THE PLAIN OF THE PAMPAS

  The limits of the prairie—The rains—The wind and the formation of the clay of the Pampas—The wind and the contour—The zones of colonization on the Pampas—Hunting wild cattle and primitive breeding—The sheep-farms—The ranches—The region of "colonies"—The region of lucerne, maize, and wheat—The combination of agriculture and breeding—The economic mechanism of colonization—The exchanges between the different zones of the Pampas.

• CHAPTER VII
  ROADS AND RAILWAYS

  Roads on the plain—The salt road—The "trade route"—Transport by ox-waggons—Arrieros and Troperos—Railways and colonization—The trade in cereals—Home traffic and the reorganization of the system.

• CHAPTER VIII
  THE RIVER-ROUTES

  The use of the river before steam navigation—Floods—The river plain—The bed of the Paraná and its changes—The estuary and its shoals—Maritime navigation—The boats on the Paraná.

• CHAPTER IX
  THE POPULATION

  The distribution of the population—The streams of emigration to the interior—Seasonal migrations—The historic towns—The towns of the Pampean region—Buenos Aires.

• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• NOTES
• INDEX

ILLUSTRATIONS

• PLATE FACING PAGE

• I. THE FALLS OF THE YGUASSU Frontispiece

• II. THE ARID ANDES—PUNTA VACAS, ON THE TRANS-ANDEAN RAILWAY

  QUEBRADA DE IRUYA

• III. THE PATAGONIAN ANDES

• IV. VEGETATION OF THE INTERIOR VALLEYS (ANDES OF THE NORTH-WEST)

  FOREST ON THE OUTER SLOPE OF THE SUB-ANDEAN CHAINS

• V. DRY SCRUB OF THE CENTRAL CHACO

  MARSHES (ESTEROS OR CAÑADAS) OF THE EASTERN CHACO

• VI. THE VALLE OF SANTA MARIA, NORTH-WEST OF MOUNT ACONCAGUA

  THE OASIS OF ANDALGALA

• VII. THE OASIS DEL RINCON, BELOW SAUJIL (ANDALGALA LINE, PROVINCE OF CATAMARCA)

  THE MONTE AT EL YESO

• VIII. A VINEYARD AT SAN JUAN

  A VINEYARD AT MENDOZA

• IX. THE LAND OF THE BAÑADOS

  LORETO: FARMING BY INUNDATION

• X. LORETO: THE RIO PINTO IN THE DRY SEASON

  LA BANDA (SANTIAGO DEL ESTERO)

• XI. QUEBRACHO TRUNKS LYING AT THE STATIONS

• XII. YOKE OF CREOLE OXEN USED FOR THE TRANSPORT OF TIMBER ON THE EASTERN CHACO, OR CHACO OF SANTE SANTA FÉ

  WORKS AT TARTAGAL (EASTERN CHACO) FOR MAKING TANNIC ACID

• XIII. THE VOLCANO PUNTIAGUDO

  CERCAS ON THE LIMAY (RISING IN LAKE NAHUEL HUAPI), NEAR THE CONFLUENCE OF THE TRAFUL

• XIV. THE PATAGONIAN TABLELAND (NEUQUEN)

• XV. THE PAMPEAN PLAIN—TRES ARROYES (BUENOS AIRES PRAIRIE BETWEEN THE SIERRA DE TANDIL AND THE SIERRA DE LA VENTANA)

  TOAY, ON THE CENTRAL PAMPA (590 FEET)

• XVI. THE PAMPEAN PLAIN—THE RIO BAMBA (IN THE SOUTH OF THE CÓRDOBA PROVINCE, 500 FEET ABOVE SEA-LEVEL)

  BUENA ESPERANZA (SAN LUIS PROVINCE, 1,166 FEET ELEVATION)

• XVII. THE PAMPEAN PLAIN—BUENA ESPERANZA (SAN LUIS PROVINCE)

  JUNIN (150 MILES WEST OF BUENOS AIRES, 330 FEET ELEVATION)

• XVIII. AN OX WAGON

  THE MAIL COACH

• XIX. THRESHING ON THE PAMPA

  SACKS OF WHEAT READY FOR LOADING ON THE RAILWAY

• XX. CONFLUENCE OF THE YGUASSU AND THE PARANÁ

• XXI. THE PARANÁ AT CORRIENTES

  THE BARRANCA AT PARANÁ (ENTRE RIOS), LEFT BANK

• XXII. THE PARANÁ ABOVE THE ESTUARY

• XXIII. THE OLDER INDUSTRIES OF THE PAMPA—DRYING HIDES

  DRYING SALT MEAT

• XXIV. A HERD OF CREOLE CATTLE

  A HERD OF DURHAM CATTLE

MAPS

• I. ARGENTINA: THE NATURAL REGIONS

• II. IRRIGATION IN THE WEST AND NORTH-WEST OF ARGENTINA

• III. THE CATTLE-BREEDING AREAS

• IV. DENSITY OF THE MAIZE CROP

• V. DENSITY OF THE WHEAT CROP

• VI. THE RAILWAYS

• VII. ESTUARY OF THE RIO DE LA PLATA

The Argentine Republic

CHAPTER I
THE NATURAL REGIONS OF ARGENTINA

The South-American continent is divided, from west to east, into three great zones. The lofty chains of the Andes stretch along the Pacific coast; at the foot of these are immense alluvial tablelands; further east are the level plains of the Atlantic coast. The eastern zone, the tablelands, ends southward at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. It enters Argentine territory only in the north-east corner of the province of Misiones. Below 35° S. lat. the alluvial plains open freely upon the ocean. The position of Buenos Aires, in the threshold of the plain of the Pampas, is somewhat like that of Chicago at the beginning of the prairies; if you imagine the north-eastern States and eastern Canada struck off the map, and the sea penetrating inland as far as the Lakes.

The three essential aspects of Argentine scenery are mountain, plain, and river. The Paraná, indeed, is a whole natural region in itself, with its arms and its islands, and the ever-changing low plain over which its floods spread, as one sees it from the top of the clay barrancas (cliffs); though it is so broad that one cannot see the opposite bank. It wanders over the plain like a foreigner, an emissary from tropical America; for it has a flora of its own and tepid waters which often cause a fog over the estuary where they mingle with the waters of the sea.

From the general mass of the Argentine plains, we must set apart the region between the Paraná and the Uruguay, which Argentinians call "Mesopotamia." While æolian clays form the soil of the Pampa on the right bank of the Paraná, fluvial deposits—sands and gravel, in which it is impossible to distinguish the contribution of the Uruguay from that of the Paraná—cover a great part of Mesopotamia. The earlier beds of the rivers may be traced here, not only by the alluvial deposits they have left, but by the lagoons which still mark their course. Running waters have shaped the landscape and scooped out a system of secondary valleys, and these reflect the history of the river itself and the variations of base-level which led to alternate periods of erosion and deposit.

On the right bank, on the contrary, the Paraná has no tributaries of any importance except at the extreme north of the country. The scarcity of running water is, in fact, one of the characteristic features of the plain of the Pampas. Except in the east, along the Paraná, where a network of permanent streams develops on a comparatively impermeable and fairly humid soil, and except at the foot of the mountains, where irregular torrents and streams, swollen after a storm and scanty in the dry season, disappear, as a rule, within sight of the hills that gave them birth, there is no superficial organized drainage. As a whole, the alluvial covering of the Pampas, the upper beds of which are cut through by the barranca of the Paraná, is not of river origin; it was brought and distributed by the wind, which took the place of running water. The clay of the Pampas is a present from the winds. The increasing dryness of the climate toward the west, as one approaches the Cordillera, explains the feebleness of the erosion by water and the extent of the erosion by wind.

It is aridity, too, that gives their particular character to the Argentine Andes. They have little trace of perpetual snow, the lower limit of which approaches to within about four miles of the Bolivian frontier. There are no glaciers there; they reappear in the south only in the latitude of San Juan and Mendoza, on the flanks of the three giants of the southern Cordillera, Mercedario, Aconcagua, and Tupungato. Below the small number of steep furrows which the glaciers have carved, and usually up to the top of the mountain, there spreads what has been called, very expressively, "the zone of rubbish." In this the winter's snows, fretted by the sun in that clear atmosphere, form those multitudes of narrow pyramids which the Argentinians compare to processions of white-robed pilgrims. The underlying rock is rarely visible. It is covered with a thick cloak of rubbish, split off by the frost, which the slow-moving waters released by the melting of the snows heap up at the foot of the slopes, at the bottom of depressions. The half-buried summits are succeeded by basins of accumulation. In the valleys round the mountains there are immense beds of detritic, half-rounded shingle. The torrents have cut their way through the alluvial mass, and they flow at the foot of high terraces which mark the sites of former valleys.

The spread of colonization toward the south during the last generation has extended Argentine territory beyond the limits of these classic scenes. The Patagonian Andes differ profoundly from the Northern Andes; and the change is not more sudden than that of the climate, to which it is due. Going toward the south, one passes, almost without a break, from the Atlas Mountains to Scandinavia. The moisture increases in proportion as the mean temperature falls. The mountains are covered with snow, and the glaciers lengthen. In one part of Patagonia they still form a continuous cap, an "inland sea," concealing the rock over the entire central zone of the Cordillera; though they are only the shrunken remainder of a glacial cap which was once far more extensive. Here ice was the chief sculptor of the scenery. It has made elevated tablelands, broadened the deep valleys which cut the flank of the mountain, polished their sides, and deposited at the point where they open out the amphitheatres of the moraines, behind which the waters have accumulated and formed lakes; and these lakes stretch back like fiords to the heart of the Cordillera, and are the pride of Patagonia.

The waters of these moisture-laden mountains have, to the east, carved out the Patagonian tableland. It is crossed by broad and boldly cut valleys, several of which, abandoned by the rivers which scoured them, are now dead valleys. The rubbish from the wearing down of the mountains and the glacial moraine has been spread over the whole face of the tableland in the form of beds of gravel. But the rivers that rise in the Andes cross a country of increasing aridity as they descend eastward. There is no tributary to add to their volume. There is none of that softening of lines, of that idle flow of a meandering stream which characterizes the final stage of a river in a moist district. Their inclination remains steep, and their waters continue to plough up coarse sediment; and everywhere, up to the fringes of the valleys, the fluting of the sandstone and steepness of the cliffs bear witness, like the edges of the hamadas of the Sahara, to some other form of erosion than that effected by running water—the influence on the country of the westerly winds. On the tableland the wind polishes the rounded pebbles, makes facets on them, and gives them the colouring of the desert.

Thus from the north to the south of Argentina there is a complete contrast in the way in which the controlling forces of the landscape are distributed. In the north the moist winds come from the east; the rains lessen as they pass westward. The clays, capped with black soil, of Buenos Aires are æolian deposits, brought by the wind from the desolate steppes which close the Pampa to the west, fixed and transformed by the vegetation of a moister region. In the south, on the contrary, the rains come from the Pacific, and the fluvio-glacial alluvial beds of the Patagonian tableland are evidence of copious reserves of moisture in the Andes; but the arid climate in which the waters have left them has made its mark upon their surface.

This diversity of the physical environment is only fully brought out by colonization. It is colonization, the efforts and attempts of human industry to adjust agricultural or pastoral practices to the natural conditions, which enable us to assign the limits of the natural regions. In this differentiation it is essential to notice the historical element.

The introduction of new crops gives a geographical meaning, which had hitherto escaped observation, to climatological limits such, for instance, as the line of 400 millimetres of rainfall which is the western frontier of the region of cereals. These limits of crops remain uncertain for a time, then experience and tradition gradually fix them. They always keep a certain elasticity, however, advancing or receding according as the market for the particular produce is favourable or unfavourable.

Improvement in the methods of exploiting the soil—the adoption of better agricultural machinery, dry farming, etc.—usually leads to the extension of the sphere of a particular type of colonization, as it enables this type to overcome some natural obstacle which restricted its expansion. Sometimes, however, it brings to light a new obstacle and creates a new geographical limit.

To this category belongs the northern limit of the belt of selective breeding, which slants across the plain of the Pampas from the Sierra de Córdoba to the Paraná. The more or less degenerate cattle of the natives had spread over the whole of the South American continent, except the tropical forests, since the seventeenth century, adapting themselves easily to very different climatic conditions, from the Venezuelan llanos to the sertao of Bahía and the plains of Argentina. But pedigree animals, more valuable and more delicate, introduced on to the Pampas fifty years ago, are not able to resist the malady caused by a parasite called the garrapate. Hence the southern limit of the garrapate suddenly became a most important element in the economic life of the Republic. It would lose its importance if we discovered a serum that would give the animals immunity against Texas fever.

The range of one and the same cause varies infinitely with the circumstances. The limit of the prairie, as of the scrub (monte) which surrounds it on every side, and keeps it at a distance of 320 to 440 miles from Buenos Aires, had no decisive influence on primitive colonization. Whether covered with grasses or brushwood, the plain is equally suitable for extensive breeding. The ranches are the same on both sides of the border. At the end of the nineteenth century, however, when the area of cultivation increased, the prairie was at once found to be superior. The labour required for clearing the brushwood before the plough can work is enough to divert from it, at least for some time, the stream of agricultural colonization. While the population of the monte, wood-cutters and breeders, are indigenous, the prairie has absorbed the immigrants from Europe, and the border of the scrub has become in many places an ethnographical frontier.2