106 EXPLOITATION OF THE FORESTS 



trolled by powerful concerns, highly organized, which 

 conduct it on a pre-arranged plan. It is true that the 

 works do not deal with the entire output of quebracho,^ 

 but they almost control the market, even as regards 

 the unworked wood which is exported, and they reserve 

 a good deal of it for their branches in Europe. In order 

 to secure the heavy loans which the works represent, 

 the companies that have built them have been obliged 

 to take over large forests, and they have come to own 

 these. The concentration of the area in their hands 

 goes on daily, and the number of companies is reduced 

 by amalgamation or by the purchase of rival concerns 

 and their estates. On the territory of the Chaco, where 

 the administration of public lands was in the hands of 

 the Federal Government, some precautions were taken 

 to prevent the monopoly of the country ; but the 

 forests of the provmce of Santa Fe belong entirely to 

 two firms. 



The eastern Chaco has received from Europe, not only 

 the capital that was needed for the construction of 

 works, but also a number of workers, either for admini- 

 stration or for technical direction. These have proved 

 more exacting than the Creoles of the Santiago saw-mills. 

 Beside most of the works there are now comfortable 

 villas and brick towns for the workers. The expense 

 was quite prudently incurred, as the industry is less 

 erratic in this region. A tannic-acid factory cannot be 

 removed like a saw-mill. When the timber-supply is 

 exhausted in the district, the works gets its material 

 from a distance, as long as the freightage permits. It 

 depends on the railway, not only for the carriage of 

 its products, as the saw-mills do, but for the supply of 

 raw material. 



The works are not all equally wealthy. They are 



" It is more and more necessary to deal with the extract of the 

 quebracho on the spot the further north one goes toward the interior 

 of the continent because the freights to the exporting ports rise 

 higher and higher. 



