FORESTS AS PASTURE 145 



at the outlet of the lakes, where the west winds have 

 a free passage, are little liable to frost. Wherever 

 frost is frequent, cultivation has to be restricted to 

 fodder plants. The more favoured cantons, which 

 grow wheat, rye and potatoes, help to feed the local 

 pastoral population, and export part of their produce 

 to some distance on the tableland. 



Cattle-breeding is, like sheep-breeding on the table- 

 land, practised both by the pobladores on public lands 

 and by ranchers who have settled on regular concessions, 

 which they have worked up and fenced round. The 

 high alpine pastures, above the fringe of the forest, 

 are partly used, from December to March, as summer- 

 pasture. The forest also serves for pasture ; it is a 

 sort of common land, available both in winter and 

 summer. Below the height of 3,500 feet the clumps 

 of bamboos in the underwood provide shelter during 

 the winter and fodder which is not buried under snow. 

 The fires lit by the breeders have changed part of the 

 primitive forest into a scrub which has been invaded 

 by a leguminous climbing fodder, and it has superior 

 pastoral capacity to the forest. East of the forest, 

 the prairie, which is too much exposed to the winds, 

 is not generally suitable for winter-pasture. The 

 cattle take refuge in sheltered valleys and in the mayten 

 thickets which follow the depressions. Bailey Willis 

 puts the pastoral capacity of the virgin forest at 400 

 cattle to each 2,500 hectares, 600 for the burnt forest, 

 and 350 for the sub-Andean prairies. The essential 

 problem in connection with the question of completely 

 developing the pastoral resources of the sub-Andean 

 region is the problem of transit. There are no roads 

 from one district to another and to the higher prairies. 

 The fallen trunks which lie about the forest obstruct 

 the way of the cattle. Collecting the animals for sale 

 and watching them are both difficult. 



It seems that the profit of exploiting the timber 

 must necessarily be small. The forest, thinned by 



10 



