SUMMER AND WINTER PASTURE 153 



ought to be general. The area which ought to be 

 reserved for winter pasture comprises the coastal plains, 

 the whole of the low-lying district round Valcheta, 

 and the lower part of the valleys to the south of the 

 Carilaufquen. They are less extensive than the 

 available summer pastures, but their capacity could 

 be enlarged by developing the irrigated areas in the 

 Bajo de Valcheta, and sowing lucerne in the mallinas 

 of the basin of the Carilaufquen. The low valleys 

 round the Carilaufquen ought to be reserved for winter 

 pasture. In the summer the sheep would be taken 

 south to the higher-level valleys, which afford permanent 

 pasture. From there they would spread after the 

 melting of the snow, and after the first rains in autumn, 

 over the high tablelands which surround them. 



This plan is obstructed in the first place by the 

 actual terms of ownership, which were imprudently 

 fixed before the examination of the country in detail 

 had been concluded. Thus the Maquinchao ranch, 

 in the lower valley, does not own the upper valley with 

 the summer pastures that ought to belong to it. A 

 more serious obstacle is that it is extremely difficult 

 to remove the sheep. It is not merely roads that 

 are wanting, but a water supply at the various 

 stages. 1 



Between the railway that runs from San Antonio 

 to Lake Nahuel Huapi and the Rio Negro, there is 

 a desert region about seventy miles in width. Red 

 sandstone predominates in it, and it remains uninhabited. 

 North of this travesia the valley of the Rio Negro opens. 

 Its width between Neuquen and Patagones ranges from 

 five to fifteen miles. Its slope diminishes gradually 

 toward the bottom (from 0*67 to 0*49 per 1,000 above 

 Chelfaro; from 0*45 to 0*29 per 1,000 above Conesa). 



1 The district of the Rio Negro is not the only part of Patagonia 

 which faces the problem of increasing the winter pasture. Attention 

 has been drawn to the possibility of enlarging the lucerne farms in 

 the district of Colonia Sarmiento, south of Lake Musters, and making 

 this a great wintering area for the Santa Cruz flocks. 



