HOW FLOODS ARE MET 99 



inundations. They are confined to the part where the 

 flood is fertilizing ; where it leaves behind it a fine, 

 useful clay which keeps the store of moisture for several 

 months. In other places the current is too rapid. It 

 furrows the soil, leaves large holes in it like the tones 

 in the flood-area of the Rhone, and sweeps away the 

 barriers ; or the water brings sterile sand which it 

 deposits in long stretches ; or again, if it is not drained 

 away in time and evaporates on the spot, it deposits the 

 salts it contains, and the land, looking as if it had a white 

 leprosy, becomes unfit for vegetation. 



The floods begin in summer, during November or 

 December. They are caused by the rain-storms in the 

 Tucuman district, and are very irregular. Some of the 

 houses are evacuated, and others are protected by walls 

 of earth, which are raised from hour to hour according 

 to the rise of the waters. Behind these walls the people 

 await the abatement of the flood. When the mud which 

 is left behind has the proper consistency, they till it and 

 sow wheat. The wheat grows in the winter, and is 

 harvested in November quickly, so that the fresh flood 

 may not overtake it. 



The caprices of the flood compel them frequently 

 to change the sites of their houses and fields. The 

 ancient village of Loreto was evacuated after a flood, 

 and is now merely a mass of deserted ruins. Round 

 the naked trunks of the algarrobas, killed by excessive 

 deposits of sand or salt, are uniform colonies of plants 

 of the same age and the same species, which invade the 

 area where the adult scrub has been destroyed. The 

 mill has been rebuilt less than a mile away, and has 

 not lost its customers, who have raised their ranches 

 some distance away. The insecurity of the plots has 

 prevented the development of small ownership. The 

 farmers are tenants of the ranches, which stretch from 

 the river to a considerable distance in the interior. 



The use of banados for agriculture is of long standing. 

 It probably goes back to the pre-Columbian period. 



