824 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



song and verse as the shade tree and landmark of the plains. It is 

 planted a good deal in the parks of Buenos Aires, and makes a fine 

 round-topped spreading shade tree, with very dense foliage. The 

 wood is spongy and valueless, the roots are said to be cathartic. Exotics 

 I will mention in later paragraphs. 



The subtropical region is confined to the northeast corner of Ar- 

 gentine, in Corrientes and Misiones, and in Paraguay east of the Rio 

 Paraguay. It is a densely forested rolling region, not much exploited. 

 The best known tree is cedro or Spanish cedar (Cedrela spp.), which 

 is the principal furniture wood of Argentine, and is exported both in 

 the log (usually square hewn) or in thick planks. Most of it comes 

 from Paraguay. There are many very beautiful cabinet woods in 

 Misiones, which are not much known. This region has a little of the 

 Brazilian pine, Aracauria braziliana, and is the seat of the very 

 important Paraguay tea business, which is made from the leaves of 

 a small tree or large bush, Ilex Paraguayensis. 



the: chaco 



The Chaco, which at present is by far the most important timber 

 region, occupies north central Argentina, west of the Rio Parana, in 

 the northern part of the Province of Santa Fe, the eastern part of 

 the Province of Santiago del Estero, and all of the Territories of 

 Chaco and Formosa, and also all of Paraguay west of the Paraguay 

 River. The area is over 200,000 'square miles, and is for the most part 

 forested, though the forests are not continuous, being interspersed 

 with large and small belts of prairie. Nearly all the Chaco is swampy, 

 and all of it is practically flat. The forests are low and scrubby, with 

 extremely dense understory of thorns, cactus, various spiny bushes, 

 etc. At least half of the region has never been explored, and half or 

 more of the area of land (of the portion in Argentine) still is Govern- 

 ment owned. 



Generally speaking, the forests of the Chaco are overmature and 

 defective. There is relatively little reproduction, and the forest area 

 is shrinking. Prairie fires are annual, and each fire enlarges the open 

 area at the expense of the forest. In the forests the fires do not 

 burn much. At the edges of each body of timber will be found 

 scattered trees in the open prairie, and old fire-blackened logs and 

 stumps. 



