86 TUCUMAN AND MENDOZA 



The oases of Cuyo are like the small oases of the 

 north-west as regards the function of those who are 

 engaged in the administration of irrigation. The water- 

 laws give the provincial functionaries general directions. 

 Below them, however, to arrange the distribution of 

 the water and the upkeep of the canals in detail, they 

 have allowed to survive, and have merely regulated, 

 certain primitive democratic organisms. At San Juan 

 the superintendence of the irrigation is entrusted to 

 elected municipal councils and the governor of the 

 department. At Mendoza, the owners appoint a council 

 of three delegates and an inspector for each canal, 

 and these settle the annual budget of the canal, submit 

 it to the provincial authorities, receive the taxes, carry 

 out the necessary repairs, and so on. The great sub- 

 division of property and the large number of electors 

 make these little republics very lively ; and they are 

 very jealous of their autonomy. 1 



Even within the narrow limits of the Cuyo district 

 the climatological conditions, which control the growth 

 of the vine, are not everywhere the same. The opening 

 of the vineyards varies by several weeks, according 

 to the locality. 2 The northern slope of the cone, 

 exposed to the sun and protected from the southern 

 winds, is more precocious. Some districts, poorly 

 sheltered from the southern winds, and very liable 

 to have late frost, have not been planted with vines 

 (district of the Tucuyan below San Carlos, to the south 

 of Mendoza). Everywhere the dryness of the atmo- 

 sphere causes the ripe grapes to remain long on the 

 vine, so that the harvest may last two months or more 



1 There are more than 6,000 owners at San Juan to 91,000 hectares, 

 and more than 9,000 at Mendoza (zone of the rivers Mendoza and 

 Tunuyan) to 130,000 hectares (statistics compiled in 1899). 



The difference is much greater at a distance from the Cuyo pro- 

 vince. Catamarca, which specializes in the production of grapes 

 for the table, is invaded by buyers from Buenos Aires, and begins 

 to send grapes in December, two full months before the harvest begins 

 in Mendoza. 



