194 THE PLAIN OF THE PAMPAS 



Bragado. As early as 1872 the Chivilcoy district 

 produced 130,000 hectolitres of wheat ; or nearly half 

 the total production of the Buenos Aires province. 

 In 1889 it formed a comparatively dense agricultural 

 patch, the cultivated area being devoted half to wheat 

 and half to maize. 



At that date the whole west and south of the Buenos 

 Aires province was exclusively pastoral. There were 

 only two isolated nuclei of agricultural colonization. 

 The first was round Olavarria, on the old Indian frontier, 

 where Russo-German colonies had been established 

 in 1878. The second was in the Suarez department, 

 at the extreme north of the Sierra de la Ventana, where 

 a group of French colonists settled five years later, at 

 Pigiie.i The opening of the line from Buenos Aires to 

 Bahia Blanca ought, one would think, to have prepared 

 the way for agricultural colonization in this section. 

 However, the 1895 Census shows a check to these first 

 attempts at tillage in the south. It fell by one half at 

 Suarez, and by three-fourths at Olavarria, The Pigiie 

 colonists have succeeded in keeping to their lands, but 

 those of Olavarria have abandoned them, and most 

 of them have emigrated to the Entre Rios province. 



On the other hand, colonization has kept the land 

 won in the district of the middle Salado, and it extends 

 in a sporadic way toward the south-west and west. 

 (Nueve de Julio, 252 square kilometres of wheat and 

 400 of maize : Veinte Cinco de Mayo, 84 square kilo- 

 metres of wheat and 218 of maize : Junin, 197 square 

 kilometres of wheat and 204 of maize in 1895). It 

 has been maintained ever since, with slow progress, 

 but without being ousted by breeding. This is one 



' Wheat-area in 1889 in the Olavarria department, 319 square 

 kilometres; in the Suarez department, 118 square kilometres. 



