830 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



Commercial 



Windbreaks are planted on a very large scale on the treeless plains, 

 Melia azedarach being used most exclusively. Eucalyptus is used 

 similarly. 



In the "delta" country just north of Buenos Aires, where the 

 Uruguay and Parana rivers unite to form the Rio Plata, there is a 

 great series of low marshy islands, with innumerable interlacing canals, 

 where willow and lombardy poplar are grown commercially for fire- 

 wood, charcoal, posts, etc. I did not have time to visit the plantations, 

 but understand they are managed very scientifically, and yield large 

 profits. 



The Argentine government spends a good deal of time talking about 

 forestry, and periodically appoints a commission to study the situation 

 and report, but so far nothing has been done. The land owned by the 

 Government, including millions of acres of timberland, is not being 

 sold at present except on a small scale and in small bodies to colonizers, 

 and this withholding may be the forerunner of a future establishment 

 of forest reserves. The trouble is that the timbered country is so wild 

 and inaccessible, forest fires are so universally prevalent, and the 

 forests generally in such a decadent condition, that I doubt if the 

 practice of forestry would at present be feasible. Except for the 

 swampy portions, the Chaco country is suited for agriculture, and the 

 Government's chief aim at present is to get the country populated. 

 Chronologically, Argentine is where United States was two or three 

 generations ago, when the forests seemed inexhaustible, and the cry 

 was for settlers. I doubt very much if any progress will be made until 

 the forests seem to be in danger of exhaustion, at which time it will 

 probably be too late. 



