100 EXPLOITATION OF THE FORESTS 



Father Dobritzhoffer, who is the first to refer clearly 

 to it, compares the Rio Dulce to the Nile ^ ; and in 

 point of fact, the banados have some resemblance to 

 farming in Pharaonic Egypt, while there is nothing like 

 them in the irrigated zones of the Andean valleys. 

 The banados were then devoted to the cultivation of 

 wheat and pumpkins. The pumpkin, which is of 

 American origin, had not yet been eliminated by wheat, 

 which was introduced by the Spaniards. The wheat 

 produced in the banados maintained a fairly active 

 export trade at the beginning of the nineteenth century, 

 and the banados were at times called, with some exaggera- 

 tion, the " granary of the Vice-royalty." It is difficult 

 to trace accurately the movements of the population 

 of the banados because of the constant changes of the 

 administrative areas in the province of Santiago. The 

 total population of the province is not now more than 

 three per cent, of the total population of Argentina. 

 but its comparative importance was much greater in 

 the middle of the nineteenth century (nearly eight 

 per cent, at the census of 1861). The departments of 

 Loreto, Atamisqui, and Salavina on the Rio Dulce, 

 which live mainly on the estates of the banados, comprised 

 46,000 inhabitants in 1861, and only 43,000 in 1895. 

 The Woodbine Parish map and Hutchinson's description 

 clearly give one an impression of a dense population in 

 the area of the banados. I refer elsewhere to the anti- 

 quity and constancy of the streams of temporary 

 immigration which spread the population of the banados 

 over a large part of the territory of Argentina. '^ The 

 temporary emigration of the Santiagueiios is distributed 

 amongst most of the provinces of central and northern 

 Argentina, but it is chiefly of interest in connection 

 with the frontier region. The Santiagueno is a woodman 

 above all else, and the forest area has the advantage over 

 the other labour-markets of wanting workers at all 

 seasons, summer or winter, whereas the sugar-cane 



« Historia de Abiponibiis. » See the chapter on population. 



