THE SUGAR-CANE HARVEST 77 



root. Besides Creoles it includes a small number of 

 Italians and Spaniards ; but while the Creoles have 

 been definitely incorporated in the sugar industry, the 

 European immigrants use their savings to buy a bit 

 of land and take to farming. 



In normal times Tucuman has all the labour it 

 requires, but the harvest always compels it to seek 

 help in other provinces. In May and June the agents, 

 well supplied with money, set out for the Salado, the 

 districts round the Sierra d'Ancasti, etc. The temporary 

 attraction of Tucuman at this season is felt over a 

 considerable distance. At Santa Maria, on the far 

 side of Mount Aconcagua, 600 people men, women, 

 and children emigrate for five months, and live on 

 the cane-fields. The merchants of Santa Maria make 

 them advances, in the name of the refiners, to the 

 amount of about sixty piastres per worker. Further 

 north the Tucuman enganchadores come into collision 

 with those from Salta and Campo Santo, and they 

 divide the available labour between them. Some of 

 the temporary immigrants settle down permanently 

 every year, and swell the normal population of the 

 sugar industry. 



Outside the Tucuman district an unfortunate attempt 

 was made to plant the sugar industry at Santiago 

 del Estero, and large works were constructed. But 

 the frost is severe there. For some years they tried 

 to keep the Santiago works going with cane brought 

 from Tucuman, but the freight was too heavy, and the 

 works had to be abandoned, or else dismantled and 

 set up elsewhere. The valley of the Rio Grande, from 

 Jujuy to 200 miles north of Tucuman, in the sub- 

 Andean depression between the Sierra de Zenta and the 

 Lumbrera, has, on the other hand, suitable conditions 

 for the cultivation of the cane. Frost is rare. The 

 climate is warmer than at Tucuman, the canes ripen 

 more quickly, and the average return is higher. The 

 water-supply also is good. There have long been 



