396 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1956 



to population pressure, supplies recruits for the settling of the pied- 

 mont forest and of the llanos at lower elevations. In somewhat the 

 same manner Yankees migrated from New England at the same time 

 that French Canadians migrated to New England, for living condi- 

 tions that seemed grim to Yankees seemed rosy to French Canadians. 

 Once the motor highway was constructed across the mountains, from 

 Bogota to Villavicencio, that "gateway-to-the-llanos" town began to 

 flourish. The piedmont forest was soon cut away and land-hungry 

 settlers entered the great plains themselves. 



For centuries the vast grassy plains, or llanos, of Colombia, like 

 those of Venezuela, have been ideal for the extensive grazing of cattle. 

 However, with the construction of the Villavicencio-Bogota motor 

 road, intensification of agriculture is possible over large areas, rice is 

 being grown as a cash crop, and land values are increasing. Rice pro- 

 duction for the local market began about 40 years ago, during World 

 War I, when there was an influx of immigrants, mainly from Caqueza 

 and Quetame, where population pressure had built up. During the 

 twenties, there was vigorous trade between Villavicencio, Caqueza, and 

 Bogota, in spite of the appalling state of the mule trail. The highway 

 between these towns — the result rather than the cause of settlement — 

 was completed between the years 1932 and 1936 and was later ex- 

 tended to Puerto Lopez on the Meta River. With its completion there 

 was a second wave of immigration, and rice became an increasingly 

 important crop when it could be sent by truck to the Bogota market 

 at a handsome profit. The immigrants spread over the area of fine- 

 textured alluvial soils between the Guatiquia and Guayuriba Rivers. 

 Here they could grow dry rice (secano), mostly on plots of from 5 to 

 10 acres in size. A few farmers cultivate from 100 to 250 acres. The 

 crop is harvested and sacked by hand, and then transported by pack 

 mule to one of the rice mills in Villavicencio (pi. 1, fig. 1). Farmers' 

 lots vary in size from 1 or 2 muleloads to as much as 150. In the mill 

 the crop is dried, threshed, hulled, and sacked. Then it is piled neatly 

 on a platform where it is tested by buyers, loaded on trucks, and 

 shipped to Bogota. 



A third wave of immigrants has been arriving in the Villavicencio 

 area since the political disturbances between 1950 and 1953. Most of 

 these recent comers are from Tolima and Caldas. It is indeed fortu- 

 nate that this third wave of immigrants, and the second wave to some 

 extent, is able to enjoy the advantages of certain modern public health 

 measures. A vigorous health campaign has all but wiped out malaria, 

 once the scourge of this fertile area. To appreciate the significance 

 of this change one has but to read the accounts of travelers a generation 

 or two ago : 8 



8 Rice, Hamilton, Further explorations in the northwest Amazon Basin, Geogr. 

 Journ., vol. 44, No. 2, August 1914. 



