CHAPTER IX 



THE POPULATION 



The distribution of the population — The streams of emigration to the 

 interior — Seasonal migrations — The historic towns — The towns 

 of the Pampean region — Buenos Aires. 



A LARGE-SCALE chart of the mean density of the 

 population lor each province — like those which were 

 published in the latest Argentine Census-reports — 

 has no geographical value foi the west and north- 

 west, where oases of slight extent are separated by 

 vast desolate stretches, deserted because of the lack 

 of water. In the Pampean region, on the other hand, 

 the population is distributed in a very regular manner, 

 and the mean densities calculated fairly represent 

 the facts. 



To the several types of exploitation, of which we 

 have studied the distribution on the Pampa, there 

 correspond unequal densities of population. Cattle- 

 breeding, for instance, requires only a thin popula- 

 tion. The early pastoral colonization of the plain on 

 the west of the Salado was carried out, between 1880 

 and 1890, with a very small number of workers. A 

 large ranch of 400 square kilometres on the northern 

 edge of the Pampa (the Tost ado ranch) only employs 

 about a hundred men, or one for four square kilo- 

 metres. The density increases appreciably for sheep- 

 breeding on the pastos iiernos of Buenos Aires pro- 

 vince, where a ranch of a hundred square kilometres, 

 devoted to producing wool, with fifty or sixty shep- 

 herds, sustains at least 200 persons, or two to the square 



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