112 EXPLOITATION OF THE FORESTS 



Robertson, the contractor (habilitado) gets an advance 

 of four or five thousand piastres. With this he hires 

 about fifty workers, supplies their needs, and gives 

 them two or three months' pay in advance. The three 

 essential and inseparable elements of the mate business 

 are the yerbal in the forest, a shop at Posadas for hiring 

 and paying wages in advance, and zyerba mill at Rosario 

 or Buenos Aires. 



The forestry industry in its various forms is not a 

 definite occupation of the soil by man. After having 

 stripped the forest, it leaves, and the land is open for 

 colonization. Nearly everywhere there is a complete 

 separation between forestry and permanent coloniza- 

 tion. They do not employ the same workers ; the 

 wood-cutter (hachador) and the charcoal-burner are not 

 the men who clear the soil. The clearing away of the 

 stumps, which must precede agricultural work, is not 

 their business, but the work of diggers. At Tucuman, 

 where most of the workers in the cane-fields are Santia- 

 guefios, Italians and Spaniards are used for clearing the 

 soil. The gangs of Mendocinos who go to cut props in 

 the bush round Villa Mercedes will not sign on for 

 clearing the ground in order to plant lucerne. 



The history of forestry and colonization is one of the 

 most diversified chapters in the general economic history 

 of modern Argentina. Round the region of the Pampas, 

 the first point where agricultural colonization came 

 into touch with the forest belt is the district of the 

 older colonies of Santa Fe. There it found the forestry 

 industry already long established, on the banks both 

 of the Salado and of the Parana. The export of timber 

 and charcoal to Buenos Aires and the lime-kilns of 

 Entre Rios was at this time one of the few elements 

 of economic life which Santa Fe had preserved. The 

 colonists did not enter the forest, and did not mingle 

 with the charcoal-burners, but they profited indirectly 

 from their presence by selling them maize. Later, 



