GOODS TRAFFIC 229 



1914 and 1916 : 17*2 per cent, of the total tonnage, 

 19 per cent, of total receipts ; 1*4 per cent, of tonnage 

 and 6*5 per cent, of receipts). They are higher for 

 the Western, the only system that lies entirely in the 

 Pampean region and has no continuations beyond it, 

 as the Pacific has to Mendoza and the Central to 

 Tucuman. 



The share of each company in the total traffic varies 

 from year to year according to the harvest. Of the 

 four to ten million tons of cereals carried every year, 

 the greater part — about a third — falls to the Central 

 Argentine, and one-sixth to the Southern. The Central 

 Argentine carries the greater part of the maize and 

 flax, the maize alone representing 26 per cent, of the 

 total tonnage carried by the line, and the flax 5"6 

 per cent. Of the other lines the Western alone carries 

 any appreciable quantity of maize, which comes from 

 the Junin district (19 per cent, of its tonnage, but only 

 12 per cent, of its receipts, because of the slight dis- 

 tances the stuff is carried). The transport of wheat 

 is about equally divided amongst the four leading 

 lines, but the proportion of it to total traffic is highest 

 in the case of the Western (34'4 per cent, of total 

 traffic). The Southern is the chief carrier of oats 

 (9-8 per cent, of the total tonnage). The tonnage 

 carried annually is particularly irregular in the case 

 of the Central, on account of the irregularity of the 

 maize crops, and the Pacific, because its lines north- 

 west of Buenos Aires serve a wheat-area that is 

 exposed to drought (wheat carried by the Pacific in 

 1913, 15-9 per cent, of the total tonnage ; in 1914, 

 27*2 per cent.). 



The clearing of the cereals gives the Argentine 

 railways a delicate problem in the organization of 

 traffic. The crops of flax, wheat and oats must be 

 cleared in the four to six months following the harvest 

 (December- January). The maize harvest, which is 

 later, is also much slower ; it lasts the whole of the 



