SHEEP-BREEDING 183 



streams in summer. Transhumation movements of 

 this kind were difficult for the Creole ranchers, whose 

 fairly large herds could not be handled easily. The 

 Chascomus breeders, however, at the close of the 

 eighteenth century, drove their cattle to the low banks 

 of the Salado during the dry season. 1 Garcia also notices 

 the importance of the Salado pastures for the ranches 

 of Salto, Areco, and Lujan.* The need to remove 

 the herds in the dry season, and to find invernadas 

 within reach of the former ranches, was due to the 

 change brought about in the natural vegetation of the 

 Pampa and the spread of the pasto duke. The annual 

 herbs which compose the pasto dulce die and disappear 

 after fertilization. Until the autumn rain they leave 

 the ground quite naked, whereas the tough grasses 

 of the pasto duro afforded a thin but permanent pasture. 



The first improvements of the pastoral industry of 

 the Pampa are connected with the development of 

 sheep-breeding. Exports of wool began about 1840, 

 and made great progress after 1855 (17,000 tons in 

 1860, 65,000 tons in 1870) . From 1850 to about 1890 the 

 economic returns on sheep-breeding were far better 

 than on cattle-breeding. During the whole of this 

 period the multiplication of sheep farms was only 

 restricted by the supply of workers. The first shepherds 

 had been Basques, in the south of the Buenos Aires 

 province, and Irish, in the north. The owner settled 

 them as small farmers in the puestos on the edge of 

 the ranch, the central part of which was devoted to 

 cattle. They could thus, while they guarded their 

 sheep, see that the limits of the estate were respected, 

 and prevent the cattle from roaming. 



Wool was for a long time the only product of the 



1 Diario de un reconocimiento de las guardias y fortines que garnecen 

 la linea de frontera de Buenos Aires (1796), by D. Felix de Azara (Coll. 

 de Angelis, vi.). 



* Nueva plan de jronteras de la Provincia de Buenos Aires por el 

 Colonel Garcia (1816, Coll. de Angelis, vi.). 



