80 TUCUMAN AND MENDOZA 



which Argentina has for the imagination of Europe. 

 When we examine a chart of the population of South 

 America, we notice that the oases of Cuyo contain the 

 only important groups of European population at any 

 distance from the coast. 



The prosperity of Mendoza to-day depends upon the 

 cultivation of the vine, just as that of Tucuman depends 

 upon sugar. The cultivation of the vine is possible in 

 the greater part of Argentina. In the early days of 

 colonization there were vineyards as far as the Paraguay. 

 They still flourish at Concordia on the Uruguay and 

 at San Nicolas on the lower Parana. But the wet 

 summers of the eastern provinces are not suitable for 

 them. The climate for them improves as one goes 

 westward, and there is less rain. The dry zone of 

 eastern Argentina is the special field of the vine. There 

 it has spread over nearly twenty degrees of latitude, 

 and it depends, like other cultivation, upon irrigation. 

 In the Andean valleys of the north-west it rises to a 

 height of 7,500 feet. South of Mendoza the higher 

 limit of the vine sinks rapidly, and there are no vine- 

 yards in the mountainous district itself. On the other 

 hand, its range increases ; in the east it spreads as 

 far as the Atlantic coast, in the valley of the Rio Negro. 



The former centres of viticulture in the north-west, 

 in the oases of the costas of La Rioja, Catamarca, and 

 Salta, have scarcely been affected by the advance ; 

 and, in any case, their extent is very limited. The 

 vine-district of the Rio Negro is only in process of 

 creation, and its output is still small. Thus the area of 

 production on a large scale is limited to the three 

 oases of San Juan, Mendoza, and San Rafael, which in 

 1913 yielded 4,750,000 hectolitres, out of the total Argen- 

 tine production of 5,000,000 hectolitres. These three 

 centres differ from each other to-day rather in their 

 economic development than in their physical conditions. 

 At San Juan, the transformation of the earlier methods 

 of production and the traditional Creole industries is 



